"Belgium is a tax haven"

The man in the street was appalled by the news, although it is just Belgian law. Everything went according to the rules. The new Belgian government discussed a tax on major financial profits for business tycoons, but it didn't make it as only the Christian democrats of CD&V supported the idea.

The other coalition partners, the Flemish and Francophone liberals and the Flemish nationalists of N-VA were not eager to introduce such a tax, which would apply to major profits made with bonds or other financial products. It was eventually scrapped from the list. The right-wing government has been criticized for "not spreading the burden equally on everyone" as the richest people and the biggest incomes were relatively spared. Middle-class families in Belgium are paying the bill in the latest round of austerity measures, it can be heard among trades unionists.

It was amidst this climate that Mr Coucke felt obliged to stage a press conference yesterday, explaining that "it is better to invest the hundreds of millions in new companies in Belgium, rather than just transferring it to the Belgian bottomless pit."

The problem is that Belgium is an inefficient country for entrepreneurs, Mr Coucke argues. "It is correct that you don't have to pay taxes to profits made with shares. And I understand the commotion. But you should know that Belgium is not an efficient country. I would have preferred to pay less social contributions for my employees during the past 27 years, to have them earn more money and to have less red tape and bureaucracy, instead of paying a capital gains tax now."

Professor Michel Maus, an expert in the Belgian tax system, told the VRT that "there are exceptions, but in general private persons or companies don't have to pay any tax on capital gains." 

He continued by saying that Belgium is actually a tax haven. "A capital gains tax has been introduced in quite a number of other European countries. This is the reason why a lot of wealthy Dutch and French are moving to Belgium to make their move on the stock market. Belgium is a tax haven."

Mr Maus agrees with Mr Coucke that the tax burden for employers in Belgium is huge, but says you can also reverse things. "If we want to reduce this tax burden, we should compensate it by other types of tax. A capital gains tax is one of the options." This would also benefit the small and middle-sized companies, which don't have the money to invest on the stock exchange.

Mr Maus calls for a tax shift. "This is extremely important. All political parties were talking about it before the elections, but nothing happened in the end. We only got a very small shift. There was apparently no broad support for the idea among the right-wing coalition, while everyone with some common sense knows that the tax burden should be spread more equally. People will not continue to accept a high labour tax while at the same time people making extremely big profits don't have to pay any taxes."