Data protection

To carry out its tasks, Brussels Fiscality, the tax administration of the Brussels-Capital Region, processes personal data. These data may be collected directly from you or from other sources.

All personal data are processed in line with the applicable data protection laws, in particular Regulation (EU) 2016/679 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 April 2016 on the protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data, and repealing Directive 95/46/EC, known as the External linkGeneral Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

This page explains what kind of personal data are processed and why. It complements the general privacy policy of the Brussels-Capital Region (External linkhttps://be.brussels/en/ privacy-policy), which provides general information about:

• what ‘personal data processing’ means;
• how your personal data are processed when you use the be.brussels portal. 

Brussels Fiscality also processes personal data as part of its control tasks related to the Low Emission Zone (LEZ). For more information, please visit the External linkPrivacy Statement on the LEZ website.

Brussels Fiscality, located at Place Saint-Lazare 2, 1210 Brussels, and represented by its Director-General, is the data controller. This means that Brussels Fiscality determines the purposes and means of processing your personal data. These data are processed to carry out its public service tasks, in accordance with the law and the instructions of the Brussels-Capital Region government. 

Brussels Fiscality has appointed a Data Protection Officer (DPO). Her main task is to monitor whether the organisation complies with privacy legislation. She also acts as the contact point for the Belgian Data Protection Authority. 

If you wish to contact her, please send an email to: Opens in new windowdpo.bf@fisc.brussels.

To carry out its public service tasks, Brussels Fiscality processes a large amount of personal data. These data may be:

• obtained from other organisations (authentic sources or internal databases);
• collected directly from you, for example, when you submit a request to Brussels Fiscality (such as a tax declaration form, a reduction or exemption request, a payment plan request). 

The personal data processed may include: 

• Personal identification data: first and last name, date and place of birth, address, national register number, household composition, etc.;
• Financial and property data: bank account number, ownership of movable and immovable assets, professional income and income replacement benefits, etc.;
• Health data: disability status for tax reductions or exemptions, special parking card, etc.;
• Judicial data: guardianship, bankruptcy, judicial reorganisation, debt settlement, legal disputes concerning taxes and fines managed by Brussels Fiscality, etc.).

In accordance with applicable data protection rules, Brussels Fiscality processes your personal data only for clearly defined and legitimate purposes related to its legal tasks. This means that your personal data are never used for purposes unrelated to those tasks, nor disclosed to unauthorised third parties for commercial or profiling purposes. 

Main purposes include: 

• Assessment, verification, collection and recovery of regional taxes, as well as fines assigned for which Brussels Fiscality is responsible for administrative follow-up;
• Assessment and granting of regional grants managed by Brussels Fiscality (and, in cases of undue payment, their recovery), such as the regional BE HOME premium and any municipal housing supplement that may be added;
• Recovery of amounts owed to the Brussels-Capital Region, its affiliated bodies or municipalities, where Brussels Fiscality has been entrusted with recovery duties under applicable legislation (Title 3 of the Ordinance of 6 March 2019 on the Brussels Tax Procedure Code);
• Management of administrative and judicial disputes;
• Statistical analysis.

To obtain personal data from federal public authorities, Brussels Fiscality has concluded several protocols in accordance with article 20 of the Law of 30 July 2018 on the protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data.   

Brussels Fiscality stores your personal data only for the time strictly necessary to carry out its tasks and to comply with legal obligations. After this period, Brussels Fiscality will take all the measures required to delete or anonymise your personal data.

Data retention periods are determined based on the following criteria:

• Data collected for the purpose of establishing and assessing a tax are stored until the expiry of the longest applicable assessment period (9 years from the taxable event).
• Once a tax has been assessed, tax and administrative data are stored until:
  • all legal actions against the assessment and its recovery are statute-barred, both on the part of the taxpayer and Brussels Fiscality;
  • the tax and all related charges (interest, fines, fees, etc.) have been fully paid.
• For any data that justify a revenue or expenditure entry in the accounts of Brussels Fiscality, an additional storage period of 10 years applies, in accordance with the accounting obligations set out in the Ordinance of 4 April 2024 establishing the Public Finance Code of the Brussels-Capital Region.

Brussels Fiscality continuously safeguards the confidentiality of your data, both internally and externally.

Internally, access to your personal data is strictly limited to Brussels Fiscality staff who need to consult your file in order to carry out their duties. The access is managed through a role-based system, whereby each staff member is granted access only to the data relevant to their specific responsibilities.

Externally, Brussels Fiscality ensures that your personal data are only available to individuals or entities that require them to fulfil their tasks. These may include:

• Your representative or other persons authorised by you to act on your behalf with Brussels Fiscality;
• Other public authorities at federal, regional, community, provincial or municipal level, as well as judicial bodies and equivalent services (police, public prosecutor, investigating judges, State Security), but only when they are legally empowered to request information from Brussels Fiscality;
• Auditors and inspectors from the Court of Audit, when conducting sample-based checks on the assessment and recovery of revenues, in accordance with the Act of 16 May 2003 establishing general provisions applicable to budgets, subsidy control and accounting for communities and regions, and the organisation of oversight by the Court of Audit;
• States with which Belgium has concluded international treaties or agreements on administrative cooperation or data exchange, insofar as such cooperation concerns the Brussels-Capital Region (e.g. international recovery procedures);
• Bailiffs, notaries, lawyers and judicial bodies, insofar as they are involved in your case (e.g. recovery or legal proceedings).

In addition, Brussels Fiscality may engage in structured and recurring data exchanges with other public authorities or administrations. Below is an overview of public services that receive data from Brussels Fiscality, including the name of the service, the nature of the data, the purpose of the exchange, and the legal basis.

Brussels Regional Public Service – Economy and Employment

• Data: Identification details of operators of tourist accommodation establishments registered with Brussels Fiscality, based on the Ordinance of 23 December 2016 on the regional tax on tourist accommodation establishments.
• Purpose: To help Brussels Economy and Employment check whether these establishments meet the legal operating conditions, as set out in  the Ordinance of 8 May 2014 on tourist accommodation.
• Legal basis: Decision No. 10/2019 of 20 December 2019 by the Brussels Supervisory Commission (only available in External linkDutch or French)

You have several rights concerning your personal data. These rights are set out in the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). 

Please note: Not all rights apply in every situation. Some rights may not be relevant in the context of your relationship with Brussels Fiscality. For example, the right to data portability, which allows you to receive the personal data you have provided to the controller in a commonly used, machine readable format and transmit it to another organization (e.g. a telecom provider), is generally not applicable here. 

To allow you to verify which personal data are stored by Brussels Fiscality, for which purpose they were collected and how they are used, you may submit a request for access.  This request enables you not only to find out whether personal data concerning you are being processed, but also to obtain further information about their use, including:

• the purposes of the processing;
• the categories of personal data concerned;
• the recipients to whom the personal data have been or will be disclosed;
• the envisaged period for which the data will be stored.

If you notice that some of the personal data held by Brussels Fiscality are inaccurate, you can ask for them to be corrected. You can also ask for incomplete data to be completed.

In certain cases, you may request the erasure of your personal data. This applies when: 

• the data are no longer necessary in relation to the purposes for which they were collected;
• you withdraw your consent and there is no other legal ground for the processing;
• you object to the processing (under article 21 GDPR) and there are no overriding legitimate grounds for continuing the processing;
• the data have been unlawfully processed;
• the data have to be erased to comply with a legal obligation in Union, Belgian or Brussels law.  

Note: This right is not absolute. Brussels Fiscality may refuse your request if, for instance, the data are necessary to comply with a legal obligation or to perform a task carried out in the public interest.  

In certain cases, you may request the restriction of the processing of your personal data. This means that your data may still be stored but may not be further processed without your consent, except for storage purposes. 

You may exercise this right:

• when the processing is unlawful;
• when Brussels Fiscality no longer needs the data for its original purposes, but you require them for the establishment, exercise or defense of legal claims.

You may also request restriction while a decision is pending on the exercise of one of the following rights: 

• Right to rectification: if you have requested correction of inaccurate data and wish to pause processing while your request is being reviewed;
• Right to object: if you have objected to the processing and want it suspended pending a decision. 

Note: This right is not absolute. Brussels Fiscality may refuse your request if, for instance, the data are necessary to comply with a legal obligation or to perform a task carried out in the public interest.  

If you wish to exercise any of the rights mentioned above, you can submit a request:

• By email to: privacy.fiscaliteit@fisc.brussels
• By post to:

Regional Public Service Brussels Fiscality
Department Legal Affairs and Appeals
Place Saint-Lazare 2
1210 Brussels

Please include proof that you are the data subject (e.g. file reference number, taxpayer number, national register number). If you are submitting a request on behalf of someone else, you must also provide proof that you are authorised to act on their behalf.

Do you believe your personal data have been processed in breach of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)? In addition to any other administrative or legal remedies, you have the right to file a complaint with the Data Protection Authority. Similarly, you may initiate legal proceedings if you consider that your rights have been infringed as a result of personal data processing carried out in violation of the GDPR. 
 

To submit a complaint, please contact the Data Protection Authority directly. 

For more information about the procedure and conditions, consult its website. It is only available in External linkFrench, Dutch or External linkGerman.