Everything about the Accountable Tax Declaration Guarantee

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Accountable offers by default a guarantee on every tax declaration in Belgium.

This guarantee means that:
- we help you answer any question you receive from the Tax Authorities
- we cover all fines up to 500€ (GROW & PRO & TAXES) or 10.000€ (MAX) (excl. fraud & late submissions)

👍 Who gets the guarantee?

All tax declarations are by default guaranteed if they are initiated by

• any Belgian user on a paid plan at the time of submitting taxes (GROW, PRO, Taxes, Max)

• any Belgian accountant whose client meets the same criteria

✅ What does the guarantee cover?

The guarantee covers any error or omission in the tax declaration that results in fines or penalties being imposed by the relevant tax authorities, up to 500€ per declaration (GROW & SMALL & TAXES), excl. fraud and non-submission of taxes.

The guarantee is extended to 10.000€ per filing on our MAX plans.

If you made a mistake (e.g. encoding a document, adding a forbidden expense), we rely on Tax Authorities to say if the guarantee applies:

• Tax Authorities decide that it was NOT carried out with the intention of eluding taxes: in this case, only non-proportional fines can be issued and we cover it as part of the guarantee.

• Tax Authorities decide that it was carried out with the intention of eluding taxes: in this case, proportional fines can be issued and we DON’T cover it as part of the guarantee.

🚫 Which cases are not covered by the guarantee?

The guarantee does not cover:

• newly calculated or additional taxes decided by Tax Authorities after e.g. a tax audit

• penalties for fraud & tax evasion

• interests on taxes

• fines issued after the guarantee validity period (365 days after submission)

• discrepancies between the income tax estimates provided by the app, and the actual amount due to the tax office (Accountable doesn't handle part 1 of the income tax declaration)

The guarantee neither applies in the following cases:

• You willingly committed fraud, as stated by Tax Authorities, during the period covered by this declaration.

• You submitted tax declarations late, more than once or did not submit it at all.

• You forgot to add documents for the period of the declaration or submitted a document twice, despite warnings displayed in the app.

• You were ever asked by Tax Authorities to pay a fine for fraud or see their revenue corrected by the Tax Office in any period prior to the submission.

• You belong to any of those special tax regimes: mixed VAT, margin VAT, or agriculture.

💬 FAQ

Can you give us 5 examples of fines people would receive and how the guarantee would play out?

We cover fines due to software errors and the results of bad encoding done in good faith, i.e. errors that you may have made while being careful saving invoices & receipts in Accountable.

In practice, here are some examples of errors and how the guarantee works in each of these cases:

• Wrong VAT % on a sales invoice made in the app This typically triggers a fine. We would pay for it, as long as not fraudulent

• Wrong invoice number on a sales invoice This typically triggers a fine. We would pay for it, as long as not fraudulent

• Wrong amount saved in the app This error may trigger a fine or a recalculation of taxes. If there is a fine, and your encoding was done in good faith and the error is not considered fraudulent, we pay it.

• Wrong expense category This might trigger a fine or tax recalculation. If there was a fine and the mistake not deemed fraudulent, we would pay for it.

• Wrong VAT % on an expense This might trigger a fine or tax recalculation. If there was a fine and the mistake not deemed fraudulent, we would pay for it.

What happens if there is a tax audit on a guaranteed declaration?

The guarantee is valid for 365 days after submission. If the Tax Office initiates an audit or raises a question after this delay, the guarantee is no longer valid. In this case, our support is ready to help you as it does for any other case.

If the Tax Office initiates an audit within 365 days, Accountable pays all the fines relative to this declaration, excl. fraud & late submission.

The tax office asked me to pay 2.000€ more than Accountable calculated. Will this then be paid by Accountable if you made this calculation error?

No, the tax declaration is guaranteed, not the amount the Tax Authorities ask you to pay. If after verification, they ask you to pay additional taxes, the guarantee does not cover them. The guarantee would cover fines that the Tax Authorities would issue to you.

That said, those cases are likely improbable, as Accountable computes the amount to pay together with the tax declaration.

I thought you already guaranteed that the computations were correct. What is the difference between a normal customer support policy?

The Tax Declaration Guarantee is unlike any customer support policy, as progressive as it can be, for the following reasons:

• Most customer support policies limit their scope to direct software issues (e.g. bugs): the Tax Declaration Guarantee guarantees the outcome of your declaration, regardless of potential bugs or software issues.

• Most customer support policies consist of refunds: the Tax Declaration Guarantee is not limited by the amount of the user’s subscription. The maximum liability is independent of the subscription price and only limited by law at 5,000€ per declaration.

• Finally, the Tax Declaration Guarantee is part of the Terms & Conditions of Accountable. As a user of Accountable, the Guarantee is therefore part of your rights (provided you are eligible, of course). It cannot be opposed by potential discrete decisions made by the Accountable Support team.

The Guarantee is a pledge that your declaration made in Accountable is correct. We make this pledge to offer you the peace of mind that you deserve as an independent.

Is the guarantee valid if my taxes were submitted by my accountant with Accountable?

Yes, entirely.

What happens if I stop my paid subscription?

The guarantee is valid for 365 days after submission, regardless if you are on a paid plan or not. When you stop your subscription, you give up on the guarantee to tax declaration past your end-of-subscription date.

What does include fraud? Also an honest mistake?

We rely on the Tax Authority's decision to assess if an error is fraudulent or not.

If not deemed a fraud, Accountable pays all the fines relative to this declaration, excl. late submission.

If I forget a document and I include it in the next period, will I not be covered?

If Tax Authorities issue a fine for this specific reason, it will not be covered. In most cases, Tax Authorities will not issue a fine for such an event and, in this case, our support is ready to help you as it does for any other case.

I got a late fee fine of €5 once. Does that mean I’m not eligible?

No, it simply means you don’t get a guarantee on the tax declaration you submitted late. You are good for the next one.

I just got a fine for submitting my declaration late. I used Accountable. Is it covered by the guarantee?

The guarantee does not cover fines for a late submission. Accountable makes everything possible for you to avoid forgetting deadlines: concretely, for each submission deadline, we send you up to 2 notifications, 2 emails, and 1 SMS. If you receive such a fine & believe we did not deliver our promise, feel free to share a copy of your fine with our Customer Success team and we do our best to help you.

The tax office corrected my income tax declaration once. Does that mean I’m not eligible?

If you ever received a correction for your income tax declaration or were convicted of fraud by Tax Authorities, you are indeed not eligible for the guarantee.

If not, no worries, you are good to go.

What does mixed VAT & margin VAT exactly mean?

Those terms refer to the following statuses in Belgium, as described by Tax Authorities:

Mixed taxable persons & Régime d'imposition de la marge

Does it cover all my taxes? Including VAT, trade tax, income tax, wage, and property tax?

In Belgium, the guarantee covers VAT, intracom listing, client listing & income tax.

Link to Terms & Conditions

Any questions regarding the guarantee or your tax declarations?
Just contact us in the messenger and we'll be there to help you 💜

Author - Valesca Wilms

As content marketing lead at Accountable Belgium, Valesca writes about freelancing, self-employment, and taxes based on her own experience as a freelancer.

Who is Valesca ?