After the professional association of accountants issued a formal notice to the Federal Public Service Finance in July over its repeatedly failing IT systems, the Federal Public Service sent out incorrect VAT invoices to some 190,000 businesses this week. The Federal Public Service Finance attributes this to a technical problem.
The error occurred during the processing of certain VAT payments and advances. Recorded amounts were not always correctly allocated to the corresponding VAT liability. As a result, it appeared as though there were still outstanding debts. The problem comes shortly after the introduction of the new ‘VAT chain’, the rules and procedures for VAT-registered businesses.
Since 1 May 2026, periodic VAT payments have been made via a new account number, and the VAT commission account has replaced the former current account. The tax authorities say they have also taken measures to prevent any further erroneous messages from being sent. The tax authorities say they have also taken measures to prevent any further erroneous messages from being sent, reports the financial newspaper De Tijd.
Tax accountant Jonas Droessaert of the accountancy firm FiscoSurplus has now formally served notice of default on the Belgian state and the FPS Finance. In his view, the sending of incorrect payment notifications is the last straw following a series of previous problems.
The VAT issues come on top of a series of previous disruptions to the FPS Finance’s digital applications. MyMinfin, Tax-on-web and Biztax have regularly gone down in recent years, often during busy tax return periods. Back in July, the professional body ITAA had already formally served notice of default on the Belgian state due to the recurring problems with these platforms. At the time, the ITAA called for structural investment in the tax platforms, clear guarantees regarding their availability and automatic exemption from penalties in the event of a proven technical fault.
