A system for obtaining advance rulings for specific tax matters
has already been in place in Belgium since the nineties. It allows
natural and legal persons, under certain conditions, to obtain
binding decisions for a period of maximum five years from the tax
authorities, which set out how they will apply tax laws to a
particular situation or transaction which is yet to produce tax
effects. A recent proposal made in Belgian parliament seeks to
create a similar system of 'privacy rulings'.
The Belgian DPA does not provide explicit advance decisions on
privacy questions brought to it, neither is there any legal basis
in the GDPR or the Belgian Privacy Act to do so. Possible informal
arrangements with the DPA are never published, so that other
parties cannot learn from them. It is also difficult to estimate
whether or not the DPA will consider itself to be bound by such
informal arrangements at a later stage.
