On 21 June 2023, the relevant ministers of the Netherlands and Belgium signed the new tax treaty between the Netherlands and Belgium. The new tax treaty, which aims to prevent double taxation and combat abuse, offers solutions to a number of bottlenecks in the current tax treaty.
In particular, it concerns a simplification of the rules applicable to teachers and professors, athletes, and artists. The exceptions that were cast in separate provisions for these professions will be removed in the new tax treaty. Thus, professors and teachers will in principle be taxable in the country where they work, and sportsmen and artists will mostly be taxable in their country of residence. Furthermore, the new tax treaty contains rules to tackle tax avoidance, as well as specific rules for emigrated director-major shareholders.
Currently, the situation of frontier workers working from home has not yet been addressed. Even in the new tax treaty, home working days of cross-border workers will be taxed in the country of residence. However, the Netherlands and Belgium are still in talks to (hopefully) reach a solution, which would then be incorporated in a Protocol.
The new tax treaty still needs to be ratified (approved) by the Dutch and Belgian parliaments. Only after approval by the parliaments, will the tax treaty be able to enter into force. This is not expected to be until 2025.
The new tax treaty can be consulted via this website (only in Dutch and French).