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All businesses in Belgium must allow electronic payment from 1 July 2022. The proposal from Minister of Finance Vincent Van Peteghem is included in the program law, a fiscal support for the retail trade is not.
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The expansion of electronic payment is part of the action plan against fraud, which Minister of Finance Vincent Van Peteghem (CD&V) put on the government table this spring. Cash payments are not prohibited, but if the customer wishes, he should always be able to pay digitally in the future. The trader chooses how this is done. He is obliged to offer at least one digital payment method, but this does not have to be done via a bank card. Payment apps such as Payconiq are also allowed.
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The essence
- From 1 July 2022, all businesses must offer at least one form of electronic payment.
- Minister of Finance Van Peteghem has not been given the green light for fiscal support for the retail sector.
- The government is also still discussing the scope of the flight tax and the target group for the tax reduction for workers.
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It is not known how many businesses still do not accept electronic payments after the corona crisis. But it goes without saying that the reduced use of cash will make certain sectors less susceptible to fraud. Van Peteghem wants to create a similar effect with the measure as with the introduction of the white cash register in the catering industry six years ago. Since then, the declared turnover of the restaurants has increased much more than that of the cafes, where the white checkout was not mandatory.
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Minister of Finance Van Peteghem wants to create a similar effect with the measure as with the introduction of the white cash register in the catering industry six years ago.
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The program law for 2022, which the De Croo government approved last Friday, stipulates that electronic payment will not be introduced on January 1, but on July 1, 2022. The fiscal support for retail trade, which Van Peteghem had in mind, is not included in the Program Act. On top of the temporary investment deduction of 125 percent that was created during the corona crisis for, among other things, the purchase of payment terminals, Van Peteghem wanted to give small businesses, liberal professionals and associations with many small transactions an additional boost. He proposed a 120 percent deduction for the rental and transaction costs of a terminal.
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flight tax
But the 14 million euros that Van Peteghem asked for, did not receive the green light from the core cabinet. Because that invoice was not submitted in time for the budget preparation, but also because the government asked whether this is unfair to traders who have been offering electronic payment for years. However, the Van Peteghem cabinet assumes that the ‘miscellaneous law’, which will be put on the government table later this year, will still allow for a settlement.
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The De Croo government is still discussing the scope of the flight tax and the target group for the 300 million tax reduction.
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That law also includes the tax shift, which Van Peteghem was able to push through during the budget discussions. It was already known that the reduction of the special contribution to social security for workers should be financed by a flight tax, extra excise duties from tobacco and tackling abuses in the non-payment of withholding tax. But the government has not yet agreed on the modalities. For example, the PS wants to limit the tax cut to the lowest wages, while the MR wants to spread the budget of 300 million over a larger group. The perimeter of the flight tax will also not be defined until next week. Van Peteghem wants to limit the tax to 20 euros per direct flight, which means that the perimeter must already be set at 750 kilometers.
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