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| DROI1279-1 | International wealth planning
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| Duration : | 10h Th |
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| Number of credits : |
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| Lecturer : | Guy Jorion |
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Language(s) of instruction :
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| French language |
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Organisation and examination :
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| Teaching in the second semester |
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Course contents :
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| Course overview
After the theory has been presented, a number of cases involving practical inheritance tax planning in an international context will be considered. The subject goes beyond the context of a classical pattern of the national de cujus (testator) and Belgian resident, who had a more or less linear professional career and whose entire patrimony is in Belgium: the estate is made up of goods situated abroad or the successors are domiciled in a country where beneficiaries are taxed on donations or successions (German, France, Spain).
Topics covered
In the first part of the course, the following topics will be covered:
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Certain foreign legislation, including that of two Anglo-Saxon countries, will be reviewed which will provide us with an opportunity to discuss succession, in Belgium, of retired persons who worked in international institutions (EC, NATO and SHAPE).
- We will then take stock of the notion of residence in death duties while not avoiding issues of wealth tax ("WT") and the fictions of tax domicile in the originating State (the Netherlands, Germany).
- In particular, we will use a practical case to attempt to show that, without going as far as creating a legal structure, the double (or triple) taxation resulting from an inheritance made up of goods located in different States (property in France and Belgium, securities portfolios in the US) for a Belgian resident who kept the nationality of his country of origin (American, for example) may be attenuated by the technique of donation by looking to maximise tax credits granted by most foreign States.
The second part of the course will be devoted to a more dynamic "ex ante" rather than "a posteriori" analysis of the following questions:
- How do we structure property investments in Spain and how do we finance them?
- If the property is in France, why should an SCI be created while a Belgian resident can realise the investment, directly or through their Belgian real estate company?
- Should emphasis be placed on the "situs" of properties (holdings in foreign listed companies)? Should wealth management integrate the inheritance aspect and look at diversifying/determining this portfolio?
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Learning outcomes of the course :
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| After completing the theoretical (6hrs.) and practical (4hrs.) components, the students will be able to grasp double taxation problems in the absence of planning, then to understand/critique/encipher a case of international estate/wealth planning. |
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Prerequisites and co-requisites/ Recommended optional programme components :
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| Introductory course in tax law. Core course in the complementary Master's in tax law. Estate planning course. A basic knowledge of accountancy's principles is not a « must » but certainly a « plus » (i.e. for allowing a rough estimation of the value of company's shares, based on its balance sheet). |
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Planned learning activities and teaching methods :
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Mode of delivery (face-to-face ; distance-learning) :
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Recommended or required readings :
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| The language of instruction is French but the written documentation is in English for the Anglo-Saxon and foreign laws (PowerPoint slides and on-line PDF documents). |
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Assessment methods and criteria :
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| Students will be assessed on their capacity to determine a civil devolution in an international environment and to encipher the cost of the inheritance tax in the country of residence (Belgium) and in the foreign countries concerned. They will be assessed too on their capacity to analyse, critique and even offer basic international estate planning (including figures), independent of the Belgian perspective in the matter.
An open-book (IFA Cahiers de droit fiscal international, 2010, Death as a taxable event and its international ramifications, Volume 95b, French-Belgian tax agreement, course notes), written examination in each of the first and second session (for the second session, subject to passing the first, there is a possibility of a short debriefing at the end of the examination, on request). |
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Work placement(s) :
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Organizational remarks :
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| - Lectures (Presentation of theory illustrated by examples and practical cases).
- 2 sessions of 3 hours and 1 of 4 hours, Saturday mornings from 9am to 1pm or 2pm. |
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Contacts :
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| Guy.Jorion@ulg.ac.be |
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| Items online : |
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| lecture's notes |
| All the lecture's notes are available on the HD campus |
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