A millionaire’s tax: the De Croo government is less than a day off the starting blocks, when the open nerve is already visible. Prime Minister Alexander De Croo (Open VLD) wants to speed up, so as not to let the matter fester. History shows how difficult it is to set up a workable vehicle.
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That N-VA chairman Bart De Wever agreed to a capital gains tax According to Open VLD chairman Egbert Lachaert, one of the main reasons for saying no to the purple-yellow agreement that was on the table this summer. Since then, the liberals have boasted that a capital gains tax will not be introduced in a Vivaldi coalition.
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In the so-called framework agreement that Lachaert negotiated with sp.a chairman Conner Rousseau after the riot with MR chairman Georges-Louis Bouchez, the liberals also got this in black and white on paper: ‘No capital gains tax, no securities tax’. At the same time, there was talk of a ‘contribution from the strongest shoulders, with respect for entrepreneurship’. It is such a typical sentence that you can use in all directions. But it quickly becomes concrete.
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In the studios of the news channel LN24, both PS chairman Paul Magnette and Ecolo Deputy Prime Minister Georges Gilkinet declared on Thursday that there will be a capital tax. Gilkinet spoke of a millionaire tax, which is intended to finance health care.
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In the corridors it sounds that the case has been ‘cast in concrete’. Read: it is in Atoma notebooks, in which the government parties give their word on themes that cannot immediately be included in a coalition agreement. People with assets of more than 1 million euros are being addressed. The ‘strong shoulder tax’ is circulating among the Greens as a promotional title.
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Financial transactions
Government circles confirm that work is underway on a tax on large financial transactions. A capital gains tax is not. It must be a withholding tax. It is also noted that the expected return is lower than with the securities tax. It brought in 250 million euros a year, until it was annulled by the Constitutional Court. For the ‘strong shoulder tax’, the target is a return of 150 to 200 million.
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It was of course to be expected that the Socialists and the Greens would continue to push for it. They must be able to silence the PTB / PVDA of Raoul Hedebouw. Especially now, through MR chairman Georges-Louis Bouchez, it has become clear that the minimum pension will increase to EUR 1,500 gross rather than that net amount.
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The liberals immediately swallow and switch quickly. The aim is to come up with a concrete proposal early next year, at the first budgetary audit. That speed is deliberate. For example, the open nerve of a government around liberals and socialists will not remain open for four years, as was the case, for example, with the call for fair taxation by Kris Peeters (CD&V) in the Michel government. And so the evening applause sessions for the groaning care sector are still fresh in the memory.
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The strong shoulder tax is cast in concrete.
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That could be a vain hope. If it were so simple to set up a tax vehicle that only makes the rich pay, yields sufficient income, does not discourage entrepreneurship and stands the test of lawyers and judges, it would have already happened. It was tried several times under the Michel government, including a speculation tax and the deliberate securities tax. Each time Michel’s creations did not last, which started the debate within and outside the government again. That really seems like something the liberals can miss. In any case, the N-VA will be ready with the scythe as soon as the tax becomes concrete.
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Press Van Peteghem
All of this immediately puts a heavy burden on the shoulders of Vincent Van Peteghem, the new Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance of CD&V. The mayor of De Pinte is a doctor in Economics and is therefore well prepared, but he has yet to prove himself at the highest political level. On the political spectrum, he is also well placed to handle this file. CD&V has been susceptible to calls for tax justice for years, but it is also playing the card of SMEs.
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It can be heard from the liberals that there is a lot of confidence in the outcome. In recent weeks, a lot of empathy has grown between De Croo and his former co-formator Magnette for each other’s positions. “Magnette has even blocked demands from the Greens, because they were difficult for us,” it sounds. The fear that Magnette will become the government’s mother-in-law, as De Wever was to Charles Michel, is small.
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The quality of the deputy prime ministers also reassures Open VLD. Frank Vandenbroucke, Vincent Van Peteghem, Pierre-Yves Dermagne, Petra De Sutter: these are people who work very substantively and not with filthy sentences. It must be possible to realize a new political culture. ‘
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