The Belgian finance minister, Johan Van Overtveldt, is preparing to recover the tax breaks granted to multinationals through excess profit rulings which the Commission judged in January this year to be tantamount to illegal state aid (see EUROPE 11465), the Belgian daily newspaper l'Écho reported on Tuesday 23 August.
Under this system, some 30 multinationals were able to reduce their taxable base by between 50 and 90%, allowing them to deduct so-called 'excess' profit allegedly resulting...