Belgium reports €625 mln in taxes on frozen Russian assets

The Belgian government announced it had received an additional EUR 625 million in last year’s taxation of income from frozen Russian assets worth EUR 250 billion, including those on the Euroclear platform registered in the country, according to a report by Belgian newspaper Le Soir.

"During the last audit of the state budget, the government suddenly demonstrated a significant amount of unforeseen income: EUR 625 million received from the taxation of frozen financial assets of Russia," the report reads.

Belgium has frozen EUR 250.6 billion of Russian assets placed through Euroclear, an international depository.

Those were reinvested by Euroclear, resulting in excess profits of EUR 821 million taxed at a higher rate.

Tax income on Russian assets is expected in Belgium this year as well, although less than in 2022.

Alexandre De Geest, the Belgian Treasury director, told Le Soir that EUR 191.9 billion of the Russian assets frozen in Belgium are transactions, and EUR 58.7 billion are assets, mainly in the form of securities.

Mr De Geest stressed that under Belgian ‘property protection’ laws, the transfer of frozen Russian assets is impossible, which would require changing them by adopting ‘certain European norms’.

In July of last year, the Belgian government was reported to have frozen about EUR 50.5 billion of assets linked to Russian individuals and entities under EU sanctions after Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.