Commission Decision (EU) 2016/1699 of 11 January 2016 on the excess profit exemption State aid scheme SA.37667 (2015/C) (ex 2015/NN) implemented by Belgium (notified under document C(2015) 9837) (Text with EEA relevance)

The Excess Profit exemption scheme, based on Article 185(2)(b) of the Belgian Income Tax Code 1992, pursuant to which Belgium granted tax rulings to Belgian entities of multinational corporate groups authorising those entities to exempt part of their profit from corporate income taxation constitutes aid within the meaning of Article 107(1) of the Treaty that is incompatible with the internal market and that was unlawfully put into effect by Belgium in breach of Article 108(3) of the Treaty.

1 Belgium shall recover all incompatible and unlawful aid referred to in Article 1 from the recipients of that aid.

2 Any sums that remain unrecoverable from the recipients of the aid, following the recovery described in the paragraph 1, shall be recovered from the corporate group to which the recipient belongs.

3 The sums to be recovered shall bear interest from the date on which they were put at the disposal of the beneficiaries until their actual recovery.

4 The interest on the sums to be recovered shall be calculated on a compound basis in accordance with Chapter V of Regulation (EC) No 794/2004.

5 Belgium shall stop granting the aid referred to in Article 1 and shall cancel all outstanding payments of such aid with effect from the date of adoption of this decision.

6 Belgium shall also reject all requests for an advance ruling concerning the aid referred to in Article 1 submitted to the Ruling Commission and pending on the date of the adoption of this decision.

1 Recovery of the aid referred to in Article 1 shall be immediate and effective.

2 Belgium shall ensure that this Decision is fully implemented within four months following the date of notification of this Decision.

1 Within two months following notification of this Decision, Belgium shall submit the following information: (a) the list of beneficiaries that have received the aid referred to in Article 1 and the total amount of aid received by each of them; (b) the total amount (principal and recovery interests) to be recovered from each beneficiary; (c) a detailed description of the measures already taken and planned to comply with this Decision; (d) documents demonstrating that the beneficiaries have been ordered to repay the aid.

2 Belgium shall keep the Commission informed of the progress of the national measures taken to implement this Decision until recovery of the aid referred to in Article 1 has been completed. It shall immediately submit, on simple request by the Commission, information on the measures already taken and planned to comply with this Decision. It shall also provide detailed information concerning the amounts of aid and recovery interest already recovered from the beneficiaries.

This Decision is addressed to the Kingdom of Belgium.