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On Friday, the core cabinet approved a proposal from Minister of Social Affairs Frank Vandenbroucke (Vooruit) to increase the social contributions of the highest wages in sport. The social security contribution of professional athletes is currently calculated on a wage of a maximum of 2,474.22 euros per month. All top athletes who earn more pay a maximum of EUR 952 in social security contributions.
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Jan-Frederik Abbeloos
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The new system removes that ceiling and raises the personal and employer contributions together to about 15 percent. On a wage of 250,000 euros, you no longer have to pay 952 euros, but about 39,800 euros. Conversely, the reform provides for a decrease in social contributions compared to today for all gross wages to 5,700 euros.
“It is indefensible that the highest wages in the sports sector hardly contribute to social security, while an athlete with a rather meager wage should. Everyone will now contribute according to the amount of the wages,” explains Vandenbroucke. The amount of these contributions is still considerably lower than for ordinary employees, for whom a total of 38 percent of the RSZ contribution goes to social security. This is a consequence of the agreement that the reform was ‘only’ allowed to yield 30 million euros.
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The government could not agree on a similar thorough reform of the tax subsidies to the clubs. Previous proposals from Minister of Finance Vincent Van Peteghem (CD&V), were always considered too drastic by the Liberals and the clubs themselves. For the time being, only the tax credit will be reduced from 80 to 75 percent, which will cost the football clubs about six million euros. The portion of the discount that must be spent on youth academy will be increased from 50 to 55 percent. But Van Peteghem wants to come up with a full-fledged reform against the budget control of March 2022.
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