Federal Public Service FINANCE TAXES AND TAX COLLECTION Administration of Recovery 1 Accountancy aspects of the EURO changeover at the Ministry of Finance by Francis Adyns Twinning project LITUANIA Vilnius, June 12th and 13th, 2007

Federal Public Service FINANCE TAXES AND TAX COLLECTION Administration of Recovery 2 Introduction Conversion of all accounts of the fiscal administrations at the financial operator into Euro on Management of all of the intern accountancy operations and accountancy lists in Euro, also of those related to periods before

Federal Public Service FINANCE TAXES AND TAX COLLECTION Administration of Recovery 3 TABLE OF CONTENTS A. Account transactions – Making up statistics 1. In general 2. Specific instructions for the collectors B. Payments by the tax payers C. Lay-out of the orders to pay D. Warning notices E. Payment facilities F. Intrests 1. In general 2. Special cases 21/03/2003

Federal Public Service FINANCE TAXES AND TAX COLLECTION Administration of Recovery 4 Table of contents G. Correspondence 1. Ordinary correspondence with a tax payer 2. Correspondence concerning recovery 3. internal correspondence H. Legal disputes and penalty clauses 1. Correspondence with lawyers, curators, liquidators and others 2. Already by the administration deposed conclusions in lawsuits 3. Mentioning of amounts of taxes or withholdings, penalisations, tax increases and interests in conclusions 4. Penalisations enforced by the courts

Federal Public Service FINANCE TAXES AND TAX COLLECTION Administration of Recovery 5 A. Account transactions – Making up statistics 1.In general Data in automatic applications transformed automatically in EUR Automatic conversion from BEF into EUR : on Consequences for the tax collector : Accouncy transactions and operations since exclusively in EUR Reports, lists and statistics since the budget year 2002 in EUR

Federal Public Service FINANCE TAXES AND TAX COLLECTION Administration of Recovery 6 A. Account transactions – Making up statistics Way of conversion : mathematically or by composing the amounts Mathematically (applied on “isolated” amounts) : Amounts that are not in relation of equality with other to be converted numbers Amounts of which the accountable interpretation has no specific requirements of equality

Federal Public Service FINANCE TAXES AND TAX COLLECTION Administration of Recovery 7 A. Account transactions – Making up statistics By composing the amounts on two levels On the level of individual amount (top down) : - conversion of rights and payments - from the final result on towards the composing particles - differences : added to the biggest composing particles On the level of the accountancy (bottom up) : - conversion of fixed rights and incomes - by recomposing of the amounts - differences of rounding: accepted in the accountancy

Federal Public Service FINANCE TAXES AND TAX COLLECTION Administration of Recovery 8 A. Account transactions – Making up statistics General operating modus to detect and to justify differences of rounding in the balancing of the year: Balancing of the year firstly made in BEF Accountancy converted in EUR New balancing of the year in EUR Confrontation of the totals of the first and second balancing to locate and regulate the differences of rounding

Federal Public Service FINANCE TAXES AND TAX COLLECTION Administration of Recovery 9 A. Account transactions – Making up statistics 2. Specific instructions for the collectors To give a definitive destination to the amounts in the “wait registers” in order to avoid : Transcription in the new manuel register of transfers of 2002 Problems with the conversion into EUR The outgoings out of the automatic register of transfers will be stopped during December 2001

Federal Public Service FINANCE TAXES AND TAX COLLECTION Administration of Recovery 10 A. Account transactions – Making up statistics Treatment of the outgoings by the CSS in Brussels during te last trimester of 2001 : DataTransfers on account Assignations Circular cheques October 2001 Settlement in December BEF EUR November 2001 Settlement in January BEFEUR December 2001 Settlement in February EUR

Federal Public Service FINANCE TAXES AND TAX COLLECTION Administration of Recovery 11 A. Account transactions – Making up statistics Procedure for the statistics for these outgoings : Data of October 2001 : introduced in BEF in December Data of November 2001 : -introduced in BEF in January -converted in EUR -introduced in statistics of the new budgetary year Data of December 2001 : completely treated in EUR

Federal Public Service FINANCE TAXES AND TAX COLLECTION Administration of Recovery 12 A. Account transactions – Making up statistics Cheques : Issued end 2001 and cashed beginning 2002 : differences of rounding can be avoided by inviting the tax payer to write out the cheque in EUR Issued from : only in EUR

Federal Public Service FINANCE TAXES AND TAX COLLECTION Administration of Recovery 13 A. Account transactions – Making up statistics Attributions to the subordinate authorities : Data of the unrecovered rights at : in BEF and in EUR Attributions to the municipalities : -double lay out (yearly and monthly report) provided in January 2002 : first in BEF, after conversion in EUR -from February 2002 : in EUR Manual rights and incomings : -base documents and reports in January 2002 : in BEF -conversion in EUR during treatment -from February 2002 : in EUR

Federal Public Service FINANCE TAXES AND TAX COLLECTION Administration of Recovery 14 B. Payments by the tax payers From : Massive release of coins and banknotes in EUR EUR = legal tender Until : Coins and banknotes in BEF will be progressively taken out of circulation BEF = legal tender During transition period ( – ) : Payments possible in BEF as wel as in EUR

Federal Public Service FINANCE TAXES AND TAX COLLECTION Administration of Recovery 15 B. Payments by the tax payers Payments by cheque : Written in BEF : not accepted by the collector offices Exception : written in BEF before and offered within legal terms : treated by the bank without additional costs

Federal Public Service FINANCE TAXES AND TAX COLLECTION Administration of Recovery 16 B. Payments by the tax payers Following specifications are to be considered : Without any mention of currency : Cheque written before : supposed to be in BEF Cheque written after : supposed to be in EUR Abolition of the Eurocheque-warrant from on

Federal Public Service FINANCE TAXES AND TAX COLLECTION Administration of Recovery 17 B. Payments by the tax payers Issue of transfer formularies in EUR : For transactions with payment date after By fiscal authorities from or from (VAT)

Federal Public Service FINANCE TAXES AND TAX COLLECTION Administration of Recovery 18 C. Lay-out of the orders to pay From : Made up exclusively in EUR With an attached EUR-transfer formulary Amount exclusively in EUR Exception : Made up in BEF in case of return of the order to pay Resend with an attached EUR-transfer formulary instead of the original formulary in BEF With a covering letter to explain the converting of the amount in EUR

Federal Public Service FINANCE TAXES AND TAX COLLECTION Administration of Recovery 19 D. Warning notices From : With an EUR-transfer formulary Until : In BEF End result in EUR

Federal Public Service FINANCE TAXES AND TAX COLLECTION Administration of Recovery 20 E. Payment facilities Consented from : Documents of payment with EUR-transfer formularies Terms of payment in 2001 : calculated in BEF Terms of payment in 2002 : calculated in EUR Consented before : Stopped after being converted into EUR Establisment of a new plan of payment for the remaining amount in EUR

Federal Public Service FINANCE TAXES AND TAX COLLECTION Administration of Recovery 21 F. Interests 1.In general Calculation period entirely in 2002 : Basis of the calculation rouded off to lower 10 Interests are calculated month by month Amount of the interests is rounded off to the eurocent and multiplied with the number of months No interests due : Amount interest < 5 EUR a month Basis of the calculation < 860 EUR (1.720 EUR for ½ month of interest concerning the withholding tax on earned income)

Federal Public Service FINANCE TAXES AND TAX COLLECTION Administration of Recovery 22 F. Interests 2. Special case Calculation period is not or is not entirely in 2002 and is made in EUR : First conversion of the basis of calculation in BEF Rounding off to the lower 1000 (BEF) Converting the result in EUR (rounded off to eurocent) Calculating the interest on the result in EUR (no interest when amount interest < 4,96 EUR a month)

Federal Public Service FINANCE TAXES AND TAX COLLECTION Administration of Recovery 23 G. Correspondence 1.Ordinary correspondence with a tax payer From : Authorities and administrations only accept and produce information in EUR Recovery services issue their correspondence only in EUR

Federal Public Service FINANCE TAXES AND TAX COLLECTION Administration of Recovery 24 G. Correspondence 2.Correspondence concerning recovery Automatic and non-automatic formularies to inform the tax payer to pay in EUR will be adapted in time Documents related to transactions before : in BEF Distress-warrants sent to bailiffs : in EUR

Federal Public Service FINANCE TAXES AND TAX COLLECTION Administration of Recovery 25 G. Correspondence 3.Internal correspondence Information fluxes of data : in EUR Information fluxes concerning facts and transactions before In BEF Final amount : in EUR

Federal Public Service FINANCE TAXES AND TAX COLLECTION Administration of Recovery 26 H. Legal disputes and penalty clauses 1.Correspondence with lawyers, curators, liquidators and others From : All amounts mentioned in EUR

Federal Public Service FINANCE TAXES AND TAX COLLECTION Administration of Recovery 27 H. Legal disputes and penalty clauses 2.Already by the administration deposed conclusions in lawsuits Amounts mentionned in BEF, may remain After : Complementary or synthecic decisions : in EUR Correspondence related with courts : in EUR

Federal Public Service FINANCE TAXES AND TAX COLLECTION Administration of Recovery 28 H. Legal disputes and penalty clauses 3.Mentioning of amounts of taxes or withholdings, penalisations, tax increases and interests in conclusions After : exclusively in EUR

Federal Public Service FINANCE TAXES AND TAX COLLECTION Administration of Recovery 29 H. Legal disputes and penalty clauses 4.Penalisations enforced by the courts Generally : Amount in law devided by 40 (official conversion currency : 40,3399 BEF = 1,00 EUR)