The existing Belgian administrative and criminal legal landscape against VAT tax fraud

Abstract

This text has been developed based on a general questionnaire to compare domestic approaches of a tax administration to combat tax fraud with regard to VAT. It elucidates on the Belgian practices and sheds a light on the competences of the tax administration in an investigative phase, as well as how the tax administration is able to sanction detected violations of VAT legislation. In this context it also makes some comparisons with the domestic tax legislation with regard to income taxes, as well as on the criminial prosecution of tax fraud. The goal of the article however remains only to enlighten the tax administration's competences and not to provide a full analysis of criminal law aspects in this context.