Deadline to submit tax forms approaches: What happens if you are late?

In Belgium, a total of 7.4 million tax returns need to be filed by 15 July (online). What happens if you miss the deadline?

About four million declarations are submitted automatically via the pre-completed declaration, some two million are filed online, and approximately 200,000 are still completed on paper.

Those filing their tax return on paper must post the letter on 30 June at the latest (Sunday), and doing it online must make sure they have done so before midnight on 15 July.

With the deadline to file online coming up in just three weeks, more than half of tax returns have already been filed. "People often wait until the last minute to submit their tax return, but we have already received half of the returns to be done via MyMinfin this year," Francis Adyns of the tax authority said on Flemish radio.

Twice a day, the tax authority tracks how many people already filed their returns online through MyMinfin; at 14:00 and at 02:00. "We are now at 1.2 million," Adyns said. How many paper tax returns have already been received is not yet clear, as the letters have to be date-stamped, and prepared to be scanned and counted.

What happens if you file late?

As the tax authorities consider filing late the same as not filing at all, this can have serious consequences.

• People filing late could face an administrative fine ranging from €50 to €1,250. That amount increases depending on how many times you filed late before.
• The tax authorities may decide to impose a tax increase of 10% to 200%, either instead of or on top of the fine. (If the undeclared income is less than €2,500, this increase will be waived.)
• The Finance Ministry will take more time to check a late tax return, with the investigation period as much as 1.5 years longer. "When people file on time on 15 July 2024, the tax authorities may still check until 30 June 2025. But if they filed late, then the tax authorities may still inspect until 31 December 2026."
• The burden of proof is reversed. Normally, if the Finance Ministry wants to refute something that is in a timely return, they have to provide the evidence for it. "But if the citizen is late, that is turned around: they have to provide the prove themselves. This is especially true for the self-employed. For employees, income is known."

Before, anyone who has an accountant or bookkeeper had a longer deadline – until October  – to file their tax return, but that is no longer the case, said Adyns.

"We now look at the type of return. If that is a simple return from a wage earner, for example, they are no longer entitled to the extension. If it is a complex return, with foreign income for example, then 16 October is the deadline."

An estimated 1.4 million people only have to file in October.

Pre-completed returns go automatically

The majority of returns – 4.1 million – are done automatically on the deadline date through the proposals of a pre-filed return, unless people want to make changes via paper or through MyMinfin.

"In previous years, 93% of those proposals turned out to be correct and complete."