VAT administrative injunction disappears

The enforceable title in VAT will be automated. Therefore the Government will modify the VAT Code. Currently this enforceable title is the 'administrative injunction'.

Electronic collection and recovery register in the making

Currently every unpaid fiscal debt which is the subject of an administrative injunction, issued by the VAT receiver, approved and declared enforceable by the advisor-general of the VAT authorities or the officer appointed by him, will in the future be recorded by the taxation services in an electronic collection and recovery register.

The collection and recovery registers will be drafted and declared enforceable by the advisor-general of the VAT authorities or the officer appointed by him. The receiver will be no longer obliged to draft the enforceable title.

Enforceable title for the recovery of fiscal debts

The collection and recovery register, which is an authentic instrument, will, instead of the injunction, express the administrative “privilege du préalable” (the legality presumption) and the “privilege de l'exécution d'office” (ex officio enforceability). As it is the case for the injunction, the collection and recovery register is an enforceable title to collect the fiscal debt and concretize this debt.

Contrary to the injunction, which is an individual enforceable tile, the collection and recovery register is a general list which will periodically and automatically be drafted, and contains the identification of the different tax debtors and the amount of tax, interest, fines and accessories which are due. It is essentially a general enforceable title since it contains tax debts of different tax debtors, but it is not excluded that a collection and recovery register under special circumstances only contains one single tax debt.

In case of non-payment of tax debts

The entry of a tax debt in a collection and recovery register will, since it is an enforceable title allowing prosecution, as it was in the past take place in case of non-payment of tax debts.

Finally the draft law allows to make a distinction between the administrative acts which are part of the imposition of the VAT and those relating to the recovery. It executes the principle of distinction between the imposer (which imposes the tax) and the accounting officer of the State, which is laid down in the law of 22 May 2003 on the organization of the budget and the accounting of the Federal State.

Entry into force?

The draft law on the automatization of the enforceable title for VAT is introduced by the Government in the Chamber on 26 September 2018.
It is supposed to enter into force as from 1 April 2019. The King can set an earlier date.
The new law contains transitional measures.