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OECD calls for major tax shift in Belgium
Belgium
10:41 13/11/2014
The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) is urging Belgium to move away from tax on labour in favour of tax on consumption, pollution and capital gains, report De Standaard and Het Nieuwsblad.
According to OECD, the Belgian government currently relies too heavily on labour taxes and social security contributions, which negatively affects job creation. This burden should be shifted to higher taxes on consumption, pollution and capital gains, such as the sale of property or shares.
The OECD’s recommendation is politically sensitive, as the major tax shift would have to be carried out by the new coalition government under Charles Michel, a “historic task”, according to the Belgian media.
Comments
Tax the rich who whitewash money in bank accounts abroad!
Belgium should not have so many government officials; cap their wages, also cap the wages from those that are sitting on luxurious government pensions. Government politicians and officials should not have two or more other jobs.
I think the OECD is more than right. The taxes on work in Belgium are FAR too high, they are an obstacle to job creation and combined with a very generous social security system, an obstacle to bothering to find work in the first place.
I expect the resistance to cuts on worked income to be HUGE, particularly on those who earn a good salary. That will be "tax cuts for the rich" you see. ;-) But then if they would be too late for me and 250 of my colleagues anyway. The work is now in Prague.
Despite being a retiree who would have to pay more tax if they introduced a tax on capital gains, I still think it is the right thing to do. The cost of labour in Belgium is far too high and it simply has to be addressed. With tax cuts on earned income they should abolish indexation and tighten up on benefit fraud.
However they also need to dramatically reduce the number of people employed by the state, there are too many levels and divisions of government for such a tiny country. I don't have the data, but I would guess that there are more government employees per head of population in Belgium than in any other western style democracy!
@Mikek1 -- "The work is now in Prague"? You won't need facing this country's low-life anymore then? Planning on putting on such a big mouth in Prague too, by the way, like God's own envoy or something?... Or is it Mr. Farage's? (even God must be scared when HE opens his big mouth - or overwhelmed by the wine and beer fumes...;-). Great minds think alike, of course; fools (and nasty pieces of work) seldom differ...