Prime Minister Alexander De Croo is due to present his budget agreement to parliament on Tuesday followingnoon. So he has 24 hours left. Small non-exhaustive anthology of what is on the table, at this stage:
- An increase in the rate of securities account tax. A measure that should bring in 250 million euros each year.
- A restriction of the tax benefit of notional interestreserved only for SMEs.
- A tax on Electronic cigarettes from 2024, via excise duty.
- A limitation of time credit for “child care” reasons, now only possible up to the age of 5 (and no longer 8) and for a period of 48 months. However, the “parental leave” system would not be touched.
- Equalization of civil servants’ pensions may not take place. Civil servants’ pensions normally follow the evolution of the salaries of active civil servants. The government’s partners plan not to activate this increase, scheduled for January 1, 2023. The subject of fierce discussions, the measure, if it is enacted, will provoke strong reactions, in particular from the many retired teachers. Caution, caution.
- The fight once morest social fraud would be strengthened, increasing some fines, checks and staff.
Added to this are measures that concern very specific sectors, such as the field of the arts with a reform of copyright, and a modification of the participation of the State, in 2024, in the distribution of newspapers and periodicals. .
Representatives of various newspapers have sounded the alarm in recent days, but the bad news seems to be confirmed. From 1 January 2024, the Belgian State would henceforth limit its participation in the distribution of newspapers and periodicals only in the white zones and for the distribution of Asbl prints. Until now, the State has in fact allocated a subsidy to Bpost so that it carries out the preferential rate for the home delivery of newspapers and periodicals. Stopping this concession might endanger certain publications. Among them, Le Ligueur or Wilfried Magazine.
On copyright, a vast reform is also on the program. Government objective: limit abuse. The ceilings might be reviewed, as might the relationship between the remuneration for the transfer of copyright and the total remuneration. The Minister of Finance, Vincent Van Peteghem has several times announced that this sector was in the line of fire, in particular certain professions, assimilated “abusively” to authors such as engineers, architects or software designers.
