Finance minister Van Peteghem (CD&V) wants the special contribution to social security to be extinguished. For financing, he is looking at an abolition of the favorable regime for professional football players and the tax advantage on second homes.
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‘Some things can’t wait,’ says Van Peteghem today in an interview with The time. That is why he is putting a tax shift of 1.2 billion euros on the table in the run-up to the upcoming budget negotiations. Just like the greening of company cars, this is a prelude to the major tax reform he is working on.
He specifically proposes to abolish the special social security contribution (BBZS). The late Jean-Luc Dehaene (CD&V) introduced this contribution to guide Belgium into the eurozone. The abolition of this means de facto a reduction of the taxes on labor for the (lower) middle class. The High Council of Finance had previously indicated that this tax creates a labor and promotion trap. With the current shortage on the labor market, all the extra work can come in handy.
Van Peteghem wants to have the BBZS extinguished to the rhythm of the increase in the minimum wage in 2022, 2024, 2026 and 2028. In order to finance this abolition, he is primarily looking at the abolition of a number of ‘excesses’ in the tax system. CD&V has previously expressed support for the abolition of the tax benefit for second residences. In addition, last Sunday, Van Peteghem made a fervent plea in De Zevende Dag for an abolition of the favorable regime for professional football players. In addition, he already announced in his fraud plan on abuse with copyrights to deal with. Wage is now often masked as copyright in order to pay less taxes. ‘In addition, there is the securities tax,’ he says in De Tijd. A tax that is currently hotly contested before the Constitutional Court.
It is by no means an easy exercise. MR chairman George-Louis Bouchez threw himself yesterday during the Appointment on Friday as a fierce defender of the favorable tax regime of professional football players. The question is also whether tackling ‘the excesses’ that he now mentions will suffice to yield 1.2 billion euros in the long term.
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