International Business Companies (IBCs) ONLY

The General Director of the Tax Service Department of Belize has granted IBCs only a (6) six-month extension for the filing of Annual Business Tax Returns and Financials for the year 2020.

The due date for filing those tax returns is Thursday, the 30th of September, 2021.

These considerations are entirely separate from the Economic Substance Act. The Annual Business Tax Returns and Financials must be filed on an annual basis and submitted to the fiscal office of Belize by the Registered Agent.

All IBCs are required to complete the Annual Business Tax Return form known as “IBC-BTAX-RETURN FORM”.

How does this extension work?

• The IBC´s that do not generate any type of income only have to declare 0 in the IBC-BTAX-RETURN FORM and no additional taxes will arise.
• The IBCs that generate any type of income are required to fulfill their applicable revenue in the IBC-BTAX-RETURN FORM, which automatically will calculate the tax payable to the fiscal office.
• On 2021, the IBCs will be reporting the income generated from January 1st, 2020 to December 31st, 2020.

Grandfathered companies are those entities which were incorporated before on October 16th, 2017 or on that date.

As an exception, these tax exemptions shall not apply to any “relevant activity” or new asset acquired after October 16, 2017.

Grandfathered companies shall be taxable from July 1, 2021 and onwards. Therefore, for these group of entities the BTAX-RETURN Form must be filed on March 31, 2022.

Non – Grandfathered companies are those entities incorporated after October 16th, 2017.

The Non – Grandfathered IBCs that generated any type of income during 2020, will be bound to complete the applicable tax return in the IBC-BTAX-RETURN FORM and the form will calculate the amount the company must pay to the Fiscal office.

However, if such income was taxable abroad, the company will be exempt from paying taxes in BELIZE. Nevertheless, the IBC-BTAX-RETURN FORM still has to be filled in with 0 and any of the following evidence must be attached:

a) A letter from the proper tax department.

b) Copies of receipts por payments made.

FORMS / LINKS:

– IBC-BTAX-RETURN FORM — Belize Tax Service’s forms may be downloaded directly from there website, as well: https://bts.gov.bz/ibc-forms/

– Grandfathering Guidelines

For further information on this, please do not hesitate to contact us at quijano@quijano.com