Georges-Louis Bouchez was the guest of the Bel RTL morning show. Questioned by Fabrice Grosfilley, the president of the Reform Movement attacked the proposals of the Minister of Finance, Vincent Van Peteghem, in the fight once morest tax evasion and strongly criticized certain practices of the tax administration.
The Minister of Finance, Vincent Van Peteghem wants to allow the tax administration to have up to 10 years to make adjustments in the case of complex files. The president of the MR indicated that he was going to totally oppose this proposal: “We are bludgeoning small independents, SMEs, meanwhile, the big international tax evasion, it escapes everything and we try to set examples with individuals”.
Georges-Louis Bouchez took the example of copyright to estimate that “when there is no fraudulent intent, we must stay within a reasonable period of three years, which can perhaps be extended to five, but we must not go beyond”.
The president of the MR also mentioned the Antigone case law, “jurisprudence which says that if the tax administration obtains certain evidence illegally, for example following data leaks, it can still use it”. He pursues : “In Belgium, and I’m not afraid to say it, a bank robber has more rights than a taxpayer, that’s why the MR is tabling a bill to come back to this because there must be equality between the tax administration and the taxpayers”.
Doesn’t that come down to protecting fraudsters?, Fabrice Grosfilley asked him. “No, it comes down to protecting the rule of law…”, considered Georges-Louis Bouchez who further added “that with this reasoning, we would accept that the tax administration is a new Stasi (Editor’s note: GDR intelligence and political police service) and that she can know everything regarding your life, whether you are guilty or not and in a state of law, it is not okay”.
