Belgium
is one of the few EU countries where a legal description
of leasing exists.
The legal status of companies specialising in leasing is
laid down in Royal Decree n° 55 of November 10, 1967
on the leasing of capital goods that form an investment
for the lessees.
Article
1 of the Decree specifies the norms with which the
transaction must comply to qualify as leasing.
These are:
- The item must relate to goods which the lessee uses
exclusively for business purposes.
- The equipment must be purchased by the lessor for the
sole purpose of being leased to the lessee and in accordance
with the latter's specifications.
- The term of the lease must correspond to the expected
economic life of the equipment.
- The rental must be fixed in such a way that the equipment
to be leased is fully depreciated within the lease term
laid down in the contract.
- The lease contract must contain a purchase option, which
means that the lessee must be given the opportunity to
purchase the equipment at the end of the contractual period
at the residual value fixed in advance in the lease contract.
Article
2 states that the lessor must be recognised as such
by the Ministry of Economic Affairs. To become
established as a valid lessor there is a minimum net worth
requirement of €-123,946.76 (5 millions old Belgian
Francs) which has to be maintained at all times. A proposal
has been submitted with a view of increasing this amount
, which is not onerous, to €-1,250,000. The decision
of the Ministry of Economic Affairs is not to be expected
before the end of 2003.
The Belgian regulation is less strict with regard to requirements
to conduct real estate leasing and no special conditions
are imposed.
The legal characteristics of the real estate leasing have
been defined by Royal Decree n° 30 of December 29, 1992
of the VAT code.
Leasing,
as legally regulated in Belgium, is full pay-out
leasing with a purchase option. The lessor retains
the title to the leased asset, and this title is transferred
only when the lessee exercises the purchase option.
As
an operating lease does not comply with all of the characteristics
of leasing as specified in Royal Decree n°55, it does
nor qualify as such.
