Belgian Tax Conciliation Surges 30%, Avoids Court in 6 of 10

Requests for tax conciliation in Belgium have surged by nearly 30%, with the process successfully keeping more than six out of ten disputes out of the courtroom, according to the 2025 annual report of the Belgian Tax Conciliation Service (SCF). The sharp increase reflects a growing preference among taxpayers for mediation over litigation as Belgium’s tax code grows increasingly complex.

A Record Year for Conciliation

In 2025, the SCF received 3,434 conciliation requests, a 28% increase compared to the previous year, as reported by RTBF. Of these, 1,660 concerned fiscal matters — disputes over the amount of tax owed, including income tax and VAT — while 1,332 involved recovery matters, primarily payment plans. A further 415 requests dealt with wealth documentation issues such as cadastral income, registration duties, and inheritance taxes, and 27 cases came from the Special Tax Inspectorate (ISI).

The service’s success rate was striking: 62.43% of fiscal conciliation cases resulted in a positive outcome, either through mutual agreement or one party adopting the other’s arguments. In recovery matters, the success rate reached 77%, while over 50% of registration and inheritance duty cases resulted in the administration adhering to the taxpayer’s position. As the SCF noted, via Belga and La Libre, “in the majority of cases, conciliation avoids litigation before the courts.”

Why Taxpayers Are Turning to Mediation

The surge in conciliation requests is being driven primarily by the growing complexity of Belgium’s tax legislation. As RTBF journalist Diane Burghelle-Vernet explained, “the growing difficulty of tax rules pushes taxpayers to seek an educational interface capable of explaining administrative decisions to them.”

Unlike a judge, a conciliator does not issue binding decisions but facilitates dialogue between the taxpayer and the tax administration, helping both parties reach a mutually acceptable solution while strictly respecting tax law. The service is entirely free of charge, with conciliators serving as civil servants of the Federal Public Service (SPF) Finance, as detailed on the official SPF Finances website.

The SCF describes its impact in broader terms, noting that it “corrects unjust or misunderstood situations, improves the quality of administrative decisions, and restores dialogue between taxpayers and the administration,” according to the Forum for the Future blog.

Untapped Potential

Despite the record numbers, the SCF acknowledges that a significant portion of its potential remains unrealized. “Even today, some taxpayers approach the SCF inappropriately: some intervene too late, others too early, while many do not use it at all,” the service noted in its annual report.

In 2025, the SCF underwent a significant modernization effort, including increased digitalization, professionalization of its methods, and a strengthening of its preventive and strategic role. These changes aim to make the service more accessible and effective.

A Pending Transformation

The Belgian government, led by Prime Minister Bart De Wever and the Arizona coalition (N-VA, MR, Les Engagés, Vooruit, and CD&V), has outlined plans in its 200-page coalition agreement to transform the SCF into a formal tax arbitration body. As reported by RTBF, this reform is intended to help clear court backlogs in tax matters.

Unlike the current conciliation model, which facilitates non-binding agreements, arbitration would produce decisions that are obligatory and binding for both the taxpayer and the administration. This represents a significant institutional shift that could further increase the service’s usage and authority.

What to Watch For

The transformation of the SCF into an arbitration body is expected to be a key legislative priority for the De Wever government. Questions remain about the timeline for implementation, whether the service will remain free of charge, and how the binding arbitration model will differ in practice from the current conciliation process.

For now, the message from the SCF is clear: conciliation works, it is free, and it keeps taxpayers out of court. The challenge ahead lies not in proving its effectiveness, but in ensuring that more Belgians know about it — and know when to use it.