Belgian transfer pricing guidelines published

Early March, the Belgian tax authorities published an extensive circular on transfer pricing: Circular 2020/C/35 on transfer pricing guidelines for multinational enterprises and tax administrations. 

The OECD Transfer Pricing Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises and Tax Administrations of July 2017 are largely adopted and it is also confirmed that if these guidelines of 2017 are updated, the Belgian tax authorities will also adhere to this update.

The circular also elaborates on the processes that may be used to achieve at arm's length transfer pricing and the preferred methods to be used. In addition special topics such as intra-group services, cost contribution agreements, corporate restructuring, financial transactions and the application of the Authorised OECD Approach to permanent establishments are discussed.

The administration states in the circular that as of this year it prefers the taxpayer to use a period of at least 3 years for the comparability test.

The principles of this Circular apply to transactions between related companies as of 1 January 2018.