No Article 17 in the new Belgium-Netherlands Tax Treaty
By Rijkele Betten, Tax Advisor, The Netherlands
On 21 June 2023, a new Tax Treaty was signed between the two neighbouring countries of Belgium and the Netherlands.
Although the text of the new Treaty is not yet available, the Netherlands Ministry of Finance did make public that solutions for several bottlenecks have been agreed upon.
One of them is that artists and sportspeople, who undertake a short-term performance in their non-residence country, will only pay taxes in their residence country. Very likely this means that there will be no Article 17 on Artists and Sportspersons in the new Treaty.
Another bottleneck regards teachers and professors, who under the new Treaty will be more likely to pay taxes in the same country where they owe their social security contributions. Effectively, they will be treated like other employees, and it appears also likely that there will be no Article 20 on Professors and Teachers in the new Treaty.
The situation of frontier workers working from home is still under discussion between the Netherlands and Belgium. It has been decided not to delay the signing of the new Treaty until these discussions are completed.
The next steps are that both Parliaments need to approve the Treaty. For the Parliamentary proceedings, the Netherlands and Belgium will prepare a joint explanatory memorandum.
The entry into force of the new Treaty is reportedly foreseen for 2025.
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