In response to the explosion in the cost of energy and raw materials, the PS proposes to tax the biggest fortunes and the excessive profits made by companies. On the waves of the First, the president of the PS Paul Magnette affirmed Thursday morning that five of the seven parties of the Vivaldi coalition were ready to follow him. Only the liberals (MR and Open VLD) would remain to be convinced.
The PS proposal consists of taxing 1% on capital over one million euros in order to finance a tax cut for low and medium incomes. “We are talking about the richest 1%,” said Paul Magnette. “This would bring in sufficient resources to reduce taxes on low and medium wages and ensure that workers have an extra hundred euros per month. In the climate of crazy inflation and exploding prices, this would be a measure of fundamental social and fiscal justice”, he specified.
The PS hopes to bring up to 3 billion euros into the state coffers. “It’s a proposal we’ve been pushing for a long time. A tax that only targets the richest percent of our population would bring in between 2.5 billion and 3 billion and help us cope with the price spike without impacting many people. people”, completes the PS federal deputy Ahmed Laaouej. According to him, this tax would concern “at most a hundred thousand people” and would benefit at least 5 million Belgians.
Ecolo also pleads for a tax on the richest which could reach 1.5%. “Faced with soaring prices, the only lasting, realistic and responsible response is to raise wages and social benefits. The State must continue to play its role of protector and it is time to make the richest contribute to the solidarity effort, among other things by introducing a crisis contribution on assets over 1 million euros up to 1 to 1.5%”believes the co-president of Ecolo Rajae Maouane. “Wealth inequalities are even deeper than income inequalities. In Belgium, the poorest half of the population has only 8% of the total wealth. On the other hand, the richest 10% hold 52% including 15% from the richest 1%”she argues.
Faced with this question, the MR takes refuge behind the government agreement. “There is a paragraph in the government agreement which is very clear and which says that there will be no additional tax for those who work, save or invest. We stick to this”says the spokesperson for the president of MR Georges-Louis Bouchez.
“The parties of the majority must stick to the government agreement”
Asked about the feasibility of taxing the richest, the French-speaking liberal ministers and the president of the MR displayed a surprising silence. We barely manage to get a laconic response from the spokesperson referring us to the government agreement indicating that there will be no additional tax for those who work.
It is finally from the Jean Gol center that the reply will come. “We are against any tax increase and on the contrary we are in favor of ensuring that people who have the most difficulty can benefit from tax reductions, for example, by raising the tax-exempt portion in order to be able to increase the purchasing power of the lowest incomes”, explains Daniel Bacquelaine, former Minister of Pensions and director of the center. “On the other hand, there is a government agreement on the taxation of securities accounts from one million that exists. It is not necessary to double it with an additional proposal which would come to weigh down, when one knows that the important incomes are already taxed at 55% in our country. Paul Magnette’s proposal is not reasonable. The parties of the majority must stick to the government agreement.” On the MR side, we see Magnette’s proposal as an attempt by the PS to go hunting on the lands of the PTB.