Background information

The government launches the Tax Shelter COVID-19 to promote the injection of risk capital into small companies that, due to the COVID-19 crisis, are in need of additional resources to finance their operations. This Tax Shelter COVID-19 is very similar to the existing recurrent Tax Shelters for start-ups and growth companies.

The measure has been approved by parliament on 1 April 2021 and is aimed at small enterprises that have been confronted with significant turnover reductions in the second COVID-19 wave.

Content of measure

The measure is intended for small enterprises, so several conditions apply:

• An annual average workforce of maximum 50 employees.
• An annual turnover of maximum €9 million (excluding VAT).
• A balance sheet total of €4.5 million.
• If a company is linked to one or more other companies, the criteria for turnover and balance sheet total must be calculated on a consolidated basis.

Whereas pre-COVID-19 this measure was aimed at start-ups and scale-ups, currently company age is no longer a prerequisite.

A difference between the systems is however that in the COVID-19 variant it is not allowed to pay out dividends to shareholders.

However, it is important that the turnover of the enterprise has decreased with at least 30% between 2 November 2020 and 31 December 2020 (compared to the same period in 2019). In case the company was not active in 2019, this turnover numbers are compared to the expected turnover as stated in the financial plan.

Use of measure

No data available

Target groups

Workers	Businesses	Citizens
Does not apply to workers	SMEs	Applies to all citizens

Actors and funding

Actors	Funding
National government	National funds

Social partners

Social partners' role in designing the measure and form of involvement:

	Trade unions	Employers' organisations
Role	Unknown	Unknown
Form	Not applicable	Not applicable

Social partners' role in the implementation, monitoring and assessment phase:

• Unknown
• Main level of involvement: N/A

Involvement

No information available

Views and reactions

No information available

Sources

• 13 April 2021: Tax Shelter COVID-19 (www.vlaio.be)