Tax return appeals not heard until 2016

Anyone seeking to take legal action against the Belgian Inland Revenue over their annual tax return will not have their cases heard until 2016, De Tijd reports. “There are at present 1,504 pending fiscal cases – this is enormous considering that we only have four or five judges who are able to deal with those cases,” said Antoon Boyen, first president of the Brussels court of appeal. As of the end of 2011, there were still 2,598 pending cases dating back to before 1999, 1,980 of which fell in the jurisdiction of the Brussels appeal court. These delays have a financial impact, because all losing parties – the State included – have to pay retroactive interest. Justice minister Annemie Turtelboom wants to set up a taskforce by next June, aimed at looking into the court’s workload.