Towards an improved level of legal protection of taxpayers in the regionalised Belgium? A research on the legal boundaries to the interpretation and application of the inheritance and gift taxes and of the civil law by federal and regionalised tax… (R-10074)

Taxpayers domiciled in different regions can be confronted with differing interpretations of essentially the same tax laws and the same civil law by different tax administrations. An estate planning made by a Belgian taxpayer which is perfectly in line with the interpretations given by a tax authority in one region, could easily be invalidated when moving to another region. For example, heirs domiciled in different regions can therefore be treated differently from each other by the tax administrations. The central objective of the proposed research consists in identifying and clarifying the legal boundaries to the interpretation and application of the regionalised inheritance and gift taxes and of the federal civil law by different Belgian tax administrations, and in particular by the federal and regionalised advance tax ruling authorities, with the aim to evaluate and make recommendations to policymakers ant tax administrations in favour of an improved level of legal protection of Belgian taxpayers to avoid further escalation of the research problem in the future. The research therefore aims to fill the gap left at the intersection between tax law (i.e. the regionalised inheritance and gift tax) and civil law (in particular succession law, matrimonial property law and the law concerning gifts and donations), against the background of regionalisation of tax law.

Keywords:Administrative Law

Disciplines:Civil law, Family law, Property law, Tax law

Project type:Collaboration project