Belgium proposes technical amendments to its Pillar Two legislation

Overview

On 9 October 2025, a draft bill was submitted to Parliament introducing certain technical amendments to the Belgian Pillar Two legislation as enacted by the Law of 19 December 2023 which transposed the EU Pillar Two Directive 2022/2523 into Belgian law.

The proposed amendments do not impact the calculation of the Top-up Tax as such, but rather aim to clarify and enhance the quality of the Belgian Pillar Two legislation and to align procedural aspects of the Pillar Two legislation with those of the Belgian Income Tax Code (ITC). Furthermore, certain amendments are also introduced in view of the upcoming Qualified Domestic Minimum Top-up Tax (QDMTT) return deadline (set at 30 November 2025) and to align the Belgian Pillar Two legislation with the draft QDMTT return as published by the Belgian Tax Authorities earlier this year.

The draft bill is available here (in Dutch and French) and we have summarized some of the most important elements of this draft bill below.

Background

As a reminder, Belgium implemented the Pillar Two framework into its domestic legislation at the end of 2023, introducing a QDMTT, an Income Inclusion Rule (IIR) and an Undertaxed Profits Rule (UTPR). For further details, please refer to our previous Tax Alerts.¹
 

Key Technical Amendments Proposed

1. Constituent Entities vs. joint venture entities

The draft bill amends the definition of key Pillar Two concepts such as for example the concept of a ‘group’ for Pillar Two purposes. These amendments aim to limit the scope of Constituent Entities (‘groepsentiteiten’ in Dutch / ‘entités constitutives’ in French) to those entities that are being consolidated on a line-by-line basis in the consolidated financial statements in accordance with the OECD Model Rules.

As a result, joint venture entities (and their affiliates) are, in principle, not to be treated as Constituent Entities but rather as a separate category of entities for Pillar Two purposes. This being said, for purposes of the Belgian QDMTT, the draft bill extends the scope of taxpayers so as to include Belgian joint venture entities (and their affiliates), in addition to Belgian Constituent Entities.
 

2. Joint and several liability for QDMTT and UTPR purposes

The draft bill confirms that the QDMTT and the UTPR are to be seen as jurisdictional Pillar Two taxes and that joint and several liability is applicable for all Belgian Constituent Entities for QDMTT and UTPR purposes. This joint and several liability is extended to joint ventures (and their affiliates) for QDMTT purposes.
 

3. Specific tax technical amendments

The current Pillar Two legislation includes some inconsistencies not only due to the manner in which the EU Directive 2022/2523 has been implemented in domestic law but also between the Dutch version and the French version of the domestic Pillar Two legislative texts. The draft bill addresses these inconsistencies by for example amending the French version of the Pillar Two legislative text by excluding investment entities for UTPR purposes, ensuring alignment with the Dutch version of the Pillar Two legislative text and with the EU Directive 2022/2523.
 

4. Designation of a General Representative

A new concept of a so-called ‘General Representative’ is introduced by the draft bill. When multiple Constituent Entities or joint venture entities (and their affiliates) are subject to the QDMTT or the UTPR in Belgium, they will be required to appoint a General Representative responsible for all related compliance requirements.  

The General Representative will be responsible for all relevant Pillar Two matters such as for example the filing of the relevant tax returns, managing quarterly advance Pillar Two payments, ensuring the actual payment of Top-up Taxes, handling administrative matters, etc. and will basically act as the go-to-taxpayer for the Belgian Tax Authorities with respect to Pillar Two.

Taxpayers are free to choose which entity to appoint as General Representative. For the avoidance of doubt, this can be another entity than the one who has filed the Belgian Pillar Two notification form. If no General Representative is pro-actively appointed, then the entity that will file the tax return or GloBE Information Return (GIR) in Belgium will automatically be deemed to be the General Representative. If no steps have been taken to appoint a representative and if the filing obligation has not been complied with, criteria have been established to enable the Belgian Tax Authorities to designate an entity as a General Representative.
 

5. Digital-Only Communication via FPS Finance (MyMinFin)

The draft bill provides for the basis that all communication related to Pillar Two is to be made exclusively via a secure electronic platform provided by the Federal Public Service (FPS) Finance. To this end, a new module within the MyMinFin platform will be foreseen. This communication will be conducted in the official language of the Region where the General Representative is established.
 

6. Alignment with the Belgian Income Tax Code (ITC 92)

Amendments are also made in order to align and harmonize the Belgian Pillar Two legislation with some of the general tax concepts and procedures under the ITC 92, including:

• clarifying that for Pillar Two purposes the taxable period equals the fiscal reporting year (in Dutch: ‘verslagjaar’ / in French: ‘année fiscale’) of the UPE and that the assessment year (in Dutch: ‘aanslagjaar’ / in French ‘exercice d’imposition’) for Pillar Two purposes is the year following the fiscal reporting year if the latter ends on 31 December (or is the year in which the fiscal reporting year ends in case the latter does not end on 31 December); and
• distinguishing between on the one hand the QDMTT return and the IIR / UTPR return (also sometimes referred to as the ‘GIR light’) which are qualified as tax returns and on the other hand the GloBE Information Return (GIR) which is qualified as an information return (and not as a tax return as such).   
   

7. Shortening of Investigation and Assessment Periods

The statute of limitations with respect to Pillar Two will be reduced from 10 years to 6 years.
 

Next steps

In order for the above proposed amendments to be implemented, the draft bill needs to pass Parliament first. It will be crucial to monitor these developments as some of the abovementioned amendments are required in view of the upcoming QDMTT return deadline, which based on the current law, is still 11 months after the end of the fiscal reporting year, i.e. 30 November 2025 for calendar year taxpayers. Once these amendments have been implemented, it is expected a Royal Decree outlining the final QDMTT return template will be published in the Belgian Official Gazette soon and that the final XSD scheme of such final QDMTT return as well as administrative guidance to the QDMTT return will be published by the Belgian Tax Authorities.

As reminder, we have summarized hereafter the various Belgian Pillar Two compliance formalities for your reference. 
 

Compliance formalities and deadline

1. Pillar Two Notification Form

Deadline: 30 days after the start of the reporting fiscal year in which the MNE group or large-scale domestic group falls within the scope of the Pillar Two rules.

• Mandatory to obtain a Pillar Two tax identification number (P2 TIN) for the MNE or large-scale domestic group.
• Filing this one-time notification or registration is a prerequisite to comply with local Pillar Two compliance obligations, including making advance tax payments for QDMTT and IIR purposes.
   

2. Pillar Two advance tax payments

Where a Top-up Tax liability is anticipated under the QDMTT or IIR, quarterly advance tax payments should be made during the year to which the Top-up Tax applies, to avoid tax surcharges.

The tax prepayment deadlines for the fiscal year ending 31 December 2025 are as follows:

• Q1 Prepayment: Due by 10 April 2025 (10th day of the fourth month of the financial year);
• Q2 Prepayment: Due by 10 July 2025 (10th day of the seventh month);
• Q3 Prepayment: Due by 10 October 2025 (10th day of the tenth month);
• Q4 Prepayment: Due by 20 December 2025 (20th day of the twelfth month).

Please note that the tax prepayment deadlines outlined above may differ in cases where the fiscal reporting year does not coincide with the calendar year or where a change in fiscal year has occurred.
 

3. QDMTT return

Deadline: 11 months following the fiscal reporting year-end and thus, for the first time by the end of November 2025 for calendar year taxpayers.

• The QDMTT return is to be populated based on the accounting standard of the Ultimate Parent Entity used to prepare the consolidated financial statements and is to be filed in the group’s presentation currency (unless stated differently);
• The return also needs to be prepared and filed when a (transitional) safe harbor can be applied or if no Top-up Tax is due;
• The return is to be completed per subgroup and requires taxpayers to disclose information about all in-scope Belgian entities, the (immediate) shareholder structure of the Belgian entities, any safe harbor applied, etc.
• The filing – in XML format – must be done by the General Representative.
   

4. GloBE Information Return (GIR)

Deadline: 15 months following the fiscal reporting year-end (and 18 months for the first time) and thus, for the first time by the end of June 2026 for calendar year taxpayers. Further details are to be expected.

In principle, a GIR must be submitted in Belgium unless the GIR is filed in one of the following jurisdictions:

• The jurisdiction of the UPE and that jurisdiction has a qualifying competent authority agreement in place with Belgium; or
• The jurisdiction of the designated filing entity and that jurisdiction has a qualifying competent authority agreement in place with Belgium.

If these circumstances, a GIR notification is however to be filed.
 

5.  Belgian IIR / UTPR return (GIR-light return)

Deadline: 15 months following the fiscal reporting year-end (and 18 months for the first time) and thus, for the first time by the end of June 2026 for calendar year taxpayers. Further details are to be expected.

The central filing of a GIR abroad could mean that it will take some time before the data needed to establish an IIR and/or UTPR assessment reaches the Belgian Tax Authorities. Therefore, concurrent with submission of the GIR, an additional (local) tax return will need to be prepared and filed in Belgium indicating the amount of IIR and/or UTPR due in Belgium. The template of this form will be determined by a yet-to-be issued Royal Decree.
 

Next steps

Pillar Two continues to be a complex web of various rules, some of which still require further clarification. Furthermore, the proposed "side-by-side" approach – allowing the U.S. minimum tax regime, being the Global Intangible Low-Taxed Income (GILTI) regime, to coexist with the OECD's Pillar Two global minimum tax framework – which is still under negotiation, does not make it easier for taxpayers to prepare in a structured manner.

Although legislative action still needs to be taken and notwithstanding the fact that the final Belgian QDMTT return template has not yet been released and that further technical (filing) guidance from the Belgian Tax Authorities remains outstanding, taxpayers should nevertheless act now to gather (if not yet done) and review the required information in order to be prepared and file the QDMTT return within a short window of time. Until further notice, the filing due date is still set at 30 November 2025.

In case you need any assistance with the completion of your obligations under the Belgian Pillar Two legislation or more in general with Pillar Two related questions, please do not hesitate to reach out to us or to your dedicated person of contact.

Footnotes

1. Belgian parliament approves draft bill on Pillar Two; Belgian Pillar Two legislation further aligned with OECD’s guidance; Belgian tax authorities issue a specific Pillar Two notification form, which requires immediate action