finance.belgium.be Registration Duties : Federal Public Service

Organization : Federal Public Service Finance
Type of Facility : Registration Duties
Country: Belgium

Website : http://finance.belgium.be/en/
Belgium Portal : http://www.belgium.be/en/taxes/registration_duties/

Registration Duties :

Registration duties are a tax imposed by the state when a deed or a document is recorded in a register.

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These are some examples of the deeds and documents which must be recorded:
** notarial acts
** leases
** deeds and reports of court bailiffs
** the decisions and judgements of Belgian courts and tribunals
** deeds relating to real estate situated in Belgium
** deeds entered into abroad providing for the acquisition of assets by Belgian companies with legal personality
** etc.

Registration involves:
** the payment of a tax (registration duties)
** the attribution of a “certain” date to acts entered into privately (i.e. without the intervention of a notary)
** the collection of information about persons and their assets. On the basis of this data, the administration may, in some cases, supply certain information. For example, the competent office can provide information about who owns a given building and on what basis.

Evidence of registration is provided by a note placed on the deed or document at the time of registration. This note includes: the office, the date of registration, the register reference, the number of pages and amendments to the deed, plus the sums received.

Succession:
After a death, a tax known as succession duty is paid when the assets are transferred from a deceased person to his or her heirs.
The amount paid as succession duty depends on the value of the estate and the degree of the relationship between the deceased and the heirs.
These rates are set by the regions. They vary according to the place in which the deceased had his fiscal residence.

As the heir of a deceased person, you have three options:
** You simply accept the succession.
** The estate of the deceased person and your own estate will then be regarded as one. The deceased person’s debts become yours, as do any claims due to him and the goods which he possessed. If it appears that the liabilities (the debts) are greater than the assets (the goods and the claims due), you must pay the difference from your own estate.
** You renounce the succession.
** The estate is passed, if possible, to heirs who do not refuse it. If all the heirs refuse, it is for the state to accept or refuse the succession.
** You accept the succession subject to an inventory.

** First, an inventory must be drawn up of the deceased person’s estate: what assets and what liabilities there are. If there are any assets remaining after all the creditors have received their entitlement, these assets are incorporated into your own estate. If the deceased’s creditors do not obtain all their claims because the estate is insufficient, they have no claim against you.

Where the liabilities exceed the assets of the estate, however, an heir who has accepted the succession subject to an inventory is not exempt from the payment of succession duties.