Tax offenders last year declared €199.4 million in black money to the tax authorities. Regularisations earned the state treasury €118 million, De Tijd reports.
Tax regularisation allows individuals to voluntarily declare capital, income or sums that they had not submitted to the appropriate tax regime. The voluntary declarations come with a fine on top of the amount paid for tax but no other repercussions follow.
A fourth round of tax regularisations began in 2016 and runs until 31 December 2023. Last year, 313 files were submitted. In the previous year, there were 342, accounting for a total of €451 million. That amount was distorted by one large file, though.
According to De Tijd, stricter banking controls are largely responsible for uncovering black money. Recent financial regulations mean that banks are no longer allowed to accept money whose origin cannot be proven.
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In addition, increased sharing of client data gives tax authorities a clearer view of money that is stashed abroad. For tax-deferred income, the penalty rate is 25%, for tax-deferred capital it is 40%.
Some are calling for the regularisation to be extended or even made permanent. However, the Socialist party Vooruit is strongly against such discussions. Vooruit Flemish MP Joris Vandenbroucke argued that it is unjustifiable to people who correctly pay their taxes that fraudsters, who have not declared income for years or hide black money, get away with just a fine and no further investigation.
"That's not fair. Vooruit advocates zero tolerance for fraudsters and so we are closing the door on regularizations for good next year. It is now up to Justice to step up to the plate to prosecute and punish tax fraudsters," he concluded.
