Rulings on copyright tax regime: Retroactive application for computer programs

On 2 September 2026, Belgium’s Ruling Commission published a newsflash (French | Dutch) on the tax regime for copyrights and its application to computer programs. With effect as from 1 January 2026, reforms to the individual income tax law have extended the scope of this tax regime to computer programs, triggering a surge in ruling requests from the IT sector. See Deloitte Belgium’s Tax Alert dated 16 July 2026 for further details.

The newsflash emphasizes that reviewing each case carefully is time consuming, and therefore to provide legal certainty, all decisions issued before 1 July 2027 will apply to copyright income paid as from 1 January 2026.

No automatic application

The Ruling Commission has emphasized that the extension of the regime to computer programs does not mean that (i) all software-related renumeration automatically qualifies for the regime; or (ii) valuation methods used in other sectors can be applied without further analysis. 

Each case must be examined individually based on its specific characteristics. In addition to determining the legal applicability of the regime, the nature of the work, the transfer of the rights, their actual use, and their economic valuation will all be considered.

Impact on the IT sector

This Ruling Commission’s newsflash provides comfort that pending or future ruling requests can still cover the period starting from 1 January 2026 if they are issued no later than 30 June 2027.  

The introduction of the copyright regime must be carefully considered and should fit within a business’ total reward policy. The possibility of retroactive application may add an additional layer of complexity.