TAX ON COPYRIGHT

Since article 17§1, 5° of the Belgian Personal Tax Code was introduced by a law of July 16th 2008, a specific article changed in a very positive way, the legal tax qualification of the income of a great number of authors, in the very broad sense of this term. 

I wrote as soon as 2009, with Me Anne Rayet of the Afschrift tax law firm, a doctrine article as global as well as practical, about this new law, in the Revue Générale du Contentieux Fiscal (2009/5).

This specific tax law on Copyright income made me put in place a great number of contracts between authors of all kinds, and their company/clients/associates to valorize their creations and benefit of this favorable tax regime, which quite unexpectantly at first, is still of application today.

I must confess that I take a lot of pleasure in countering the Tax authorities’ attempts to jeopardize, one way or the other, the application of this law to all authors, as was the intent of the 2008 legislator which has not changed ever since.

I take a lot of pleasure in countering the Tax authorities’ attempts to jeopardize, one way or the other, the application of this law to all authors

This combination: Copyrights + Tax law is fascinating to me. It led to a large number of non-contentious files, a few administrative proceedings, and only one court proceeding which is still pending (since 3 years).

I like to explain and dissect a file, in order to enable accountants and clients to understand this mechanism of qualification of this copyright incomes into movable assets incomes, which are submitted to a reasonable tax rate and, for independent workers, without additional social security contributions.