On June 27 2008 the council of ministers approved a draft bill of law that intends to align Belgian tax legislation with the European fiscal merger directive (directive 90/434/EC of the council d.d. July 231999, as amended by directive 2005/19/EC of the council d.d. February 172005 – hereafter the merger directive). The draft bill was submitted to parliament on July 24 2008 for approval. This is a second attempt after a first initiative of the former government in 2007 failed to make it to law. The new rules are meant to enter into force as of the date of publication of the bill. This is expected to occur somewhere in the last...