Les nouveaux défis de la fiscalité des ASBL après le Code des sociétés et des associations

peer reviewedThe Belgian Code of Companies and Associations (CCA) has substantially reformed the law on legal persons. An act of 17 March 2019 made the necessary adjustments to the legislation in order to guarantee that this reform is tax neutral. What repercussions could the CCA have on the current income tax system applicable to non-profit associations (ASBL/VZW)? This is the question at the heart of this article. Firstly, we will talk about the income tax system applicable to non-profit associations before the CCA. Based on the assumption that the taxpayer whose tax position we are seeking to determine (liable for tax on legal persons or corporate tax) is a non-profit association with its tax residence in Belgium, the reasoning to be applied comprises a maximum of three steps: 1. Does the non-profit association engage in an activity or operations of a lucrative nature? 2. If this is the case, does it act mainly or exclusively in a privileged field (Article 181 of the Income Tax Code 1992)? 3. If not, does it confine itself to carrying out authorised operations (Article 182 of the Income Tax Code 1992)? Secondly, we consider how this system is set to develop with the CCA. If the line of reasoning remains as it is, the interpretation that will be given for two categories of authorised operations raises a question. Although lucrative operations are carried out, these will not lead to liability for corporate tax if these operations do not implement industrial or commercial methods or if they are ancillary economic operations. So carrying out ancillary economic operations only will still present an issue, but only in tax term