Take care if you are offering goods or services through an online platform

Practically speaking, all Member States have until 31 December 2022 to transpose the directive into national law. The directive is the result of the fact that currently, tax authorities are often unaware of income coming in through digital platforms. They do not have access to sufficient information to accurately identify and monitor such income. The DAC7 directive therefore introduces a reporting obligation for all digital platform operators. From 1 January 2023, they must collect information about sellers and their activities on the platform and report this data to the competent authorities.

The Member States’ competent authorities will then exchange this information with one another. In this way, the tax authorities can keep an eye on anyone based in Belgian who is selling goods or providing services through an online platform professionally without declaring the associated income. This applies to individuals, but also to entities such as corporations.

Example

You use a digital platform to rent out your holiday home. From 1 January 2023, the platform is obliged to report all data concerning this property to the relevant tax authorities. This can alert the authorities to your property ownership and the related amount of rental income. Filing your taxes correctly becomes more important than ever from then on.