Webshops: make a voluntary VAT payment in Belgium

Dutch webshops regularly receive Belgian assessments for years in which no Belgian VAT was paid. Correcting the past on your own initiative avoids penalties and interest in most cases.

Under the distance selling rules, a business supplying a private individual in another member state must account for VAT there. Since 1 July 2021 the One Stop Shop has existed to make paying VAT in the right member state simpler.

We have recently been seeing webshop businesses receive assessments, particularly from the Belgian tax authorities, because those authorities have discovered that for years no VAT was accounted for on sales to Belgian consumers, including in the period when country-specific thresholds still applied. There is usually no bad faith on the webshop's part, more often ignorance or carelessness. VAT is generally paid, but in the Netherlands.

Why this is painful

The Belgian authorities have their ways of finding out that they have missed out on VAT, and they often focus specifically on Dutch webshops.

The problem is not only that VAT must be paid in Belgium after all, though that involves a good deal of work, including reclaiming the VAT paid in the Netherlands. The cost is driven above all by the heavy penalties, up to 50% of the VAT due, and by interest. We have objected to those many times and secured reductions on a number of occasions.

Correct the past on your own initiative

So do not think: I will get it right from now on and leave the past alone. Where the past is corrected voluntarily and the VAT is paid in Belgium after all, penalties and interest are avoided in most cases.