2023-07-19 15:49:43
This Tuesday, the Prime Minister and the Minister of Finance still believed in it. But later in the evening, they might only record the failure of the tax reform project.
Five weekends in a rowthe tax reform had been included by the Prime Minister in theagenda of the vice-Premier of the Vivaldi. But the discussions went in circles, each party tirelessly returning with the same demands. The annoyance was more and more perceptible.
THE ambitions had yet been sharply downgraded. In the end, we were talking regarding a reduction in labor charges of 1.6 billion in 2024, and an additional 550 million in 2025. But it was still stuck on the how to finance this reduction in expenses. And the question of labor market reformwhich the MR wanted to couple with the tax reform, came back in a haunting way – a liberal provocation, said the PS, which did not want to hear regarding it.
The deadlock was such that on July 9, Prime Minister Alexander De Croo (Open VLD) put a new topic on the agenda: pensions. And in one night, the kern reached an agreement on the subject.
Radiance
That did not allow however to revive the dynamic on the tax file. Several deputy prime ministers were beginning to drag their feet. The positions were so far apart that, last weekend, only bilateral meetings are organized. And then, Monday, a bang from the MR, who announced, following his party office, that he wanted postpone the discussion to the budget conclave September-October.
He believes that the proposals on the table provide too many new taxes et not enough feedback effects labor market reforms. He also considers that the tax cuts will not sufficiently benefit the self-employed.
The Prime Minister and the Minister of Finance refuse to throw in the towel, and pursue the bilateral contacts with Deputy Prime Minister David Clarinval (MR). Who lets himself be convinced to participate in a kern, Tuesday evening. “The proposals are going in the right direction”, we hear then in his cabinet.
Less taxes
The reduction in labor taxes has hardly changed, except for a extra effort is made for freelancers – we are now talking regarding 250 million in 2024, once morest 160 million previously.
“After our exit on Monday, we felt that it was difficult for Ecolo and the PS to reopen discussions.”
The increase in securities account tax is no longer on the table. And the total of new taxes is no longer 1.6 billion, but just over 1 billion. Above all, the proposal now takes into account the creation of 19,000 jobs additional. Through what concrete measures? Difficult to see clearly, no summary note having been distributed. “But the blueprint was less credible than the previous ones”, we hear from the side of the Greens and the Socialists.
No substantive discussion
The Deputy Prime Ministers meet in kern tuesday night, and a first round table is organised. But’atmosphere is far from constructive. Even before the meeting, socialists and ecologists expressed their fear of a “turn to the right”. “By eliminating everything that the MR did not want, we are now faced with a tax cut that no longer holds water,” said a socialist source.
“After our exit on Monday, we felt that he was difficult for Ecolo and the PS to reopen discussions, analyzes for its part a liberal source. Mass was said, there was no substantive discussion.
“From the moment a partner wants to sabotage the negotiation, we might have discussed all night, nothing would have helped.”
Opposite, we point the finger at the responsibility of the MR, and more particularly of its president Georges-Louis Bouchez, who would have given an “impossible” mandate to David Clarinval. When it was his turn to speak, he repeated that he wanted a tax cut, not a tax shift, say several participants. “It was a joke, judge Deputy Prime Minister Georges Gilkinet (Ecolo). From the moment a partner wants to sabotage the negotiation, we might have discussed all night, nothing would have helped.”
The note prepared by the Prime Minister never will not even be filed. Bilateral discussions are organized, at the end of which Alexander De Croo says he “had to note that reaching an agreement was not possible without significantly impacting the budgetary situation”.
“We cannot claim to defend the middle classes when we refuse an opportunity to lower the charges on labour.”
A missed opportunity, conclude all the Vivaldi parties, including the MR, which nevertheless claims to have avoided a simple tax shift “which risked having perverse effects on pensioners or the self-employed, who would have benefited little or not from the reduction charges on labour, but would have suffered tax increases. A false argument, for Deputy Prime Minister Pierre-Yves Dermagne. “We cannot claim to defend the middle classes when we refuse an opportunity to lower the charges on the work with a small contribution from the largest estates. This, six of the seven parties of the Vivaldi were ready to do, even if some points were still to be discussed.
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