Tax rules for the public sector differ from the ordinary tax rules that apply to the private sector in many ways. In this respect, the right application of the tax rules in the public sector also requires proper insight into the administrative and legal processes and sensitive areas.
In other words: the tax situation in the public sector demands an approach all of its own.
Tax rules for the public sector change constantly, as do all regulations in this area. Tiberghien has extensive experience in assisting government institutions with changes to their tax regime. In this context, we refer, for example, to the special VAT status of government institutions which changed dramatically in 2007. For each activity, it has to be determined whether it qualifies as ‘government institution’ outside the scope of VAT. The tax status of intercommunal partnerships (or intermunicipal companies) was overhauled as well in 2015. For each case, they must from now on examine whether their partnership qualifies under the tax on legal persons or corporation tax.
We have noticed furthermore that public law bodies and nonprofit organisations are increasingly being targeted by the tax office, which means entities and institutions operating in this sector are in increasing need of professional tax guidance.
Tiberghien has been a reliable and long-standing partner for a number of important government institutions and public law bodies for several years. Due to recent developments, more and more government institutions and public law bodies are turning to our services, for which we can rely on the extensive experience we have gathered over the years.
Our long-standing practical experience in the sector enables us to focus on the specific fiscal conundrums which organisations in the public sector are confronted with. In this area, our firm always departs from a global approach in terms of tax (VAT, direct taxes and others), whereby we always make the link with the administrative and legal areas of attention.
