Proposition 50K0683

Projet de loi relatif à l'exécution de l'avenant, signé à Bruxelles le 8 février 1999, à la convention entre la Belgique et la France tendant à éviter les doubles impositions et à établir des règles d'assistance administrative et juridique réciproque en matière d'impôts sur les revenus, signée à Bruxelles le 10 mars 1964.

General information ¶

Submitted by

Groen Open Vld Vooruit PS | SP Ecolo MR Verhofstadt Ⅰ

Submission date

May 26, 2000

Official page

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Status

Adopted

Requirement

Simple

Subjects

France direct tax double taxation tax on income

Voting ¶

Voted to adopt

Groen Vooruit Ecolo LE PS | SP Open Vld N-VA MR FN VB

Party dissidents ¶

• Hubert Brouns (Vooruit) abstained from voting.
• Mark Eyskens (Vooruit) abstained from voting.
• Dirk Pieters (Vooruit) abstained from voting.
• Marc Van Peel (Vooruit) abstained from voting.

Contact form ¶

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Discussion ¶

June 21, 2000 | Plenary session (Chamber of representatives)

Full source

I am referring to my written report.

Mr. Speaker, Mr. Minister, the double tax treaties are not the topics on which the most is intervened. Nevertheless, I would like to speak briefly about this Avenant, because it gives us the opportunity in the plenary session, also before the Acts - scripta manent - to relativize somewhat the discourse on the revaluation of the parliament and on the new political morals and to confront the factuality. This bill was submitted to the Finance and Budget Committee in late May, early June, which is quite late. It was first scheduled on June 6. Then we had to determine that the required number of members of the majority was not present. The meeting was postponed to June 13. Again, the required number of members of the majority was not present. A half-hour suspension of the meeting was needed to ensure that enough members were present in the committee to support the policy of the government and to discuss and, if necessary, vote on this bill, with which we can basically agree. It is important to address this today. Article 2 of this draft law contains a rather complex provision relating to its entry into force. There is a double possibility. The entry into force is possible one year after the publication of either the Avenant or the draft law that we are going to approve. The Avenant was published in the Belgian Staatsblad on 23 May. Consequently, the provision, as it is formulated here, no longer makes sense. We had submitted an amendment to resolve this legal imperfection of the text by deleting the words publication of the Avenant. However, the Minister has issued a negative vote on behalf of the Government. This happened very quickly because the majority had shortly reached the quorum. Although the minister said that it makes sense from a legalist point of view, he argued that the vote on this draft law should not be delayed, given the fact that it was already so long. We can get income there, but that does not prevent us from once again emphasizing the faulty functioning of the majority, even in these technical matters. Also from the concern to deliver good legislative work, we have submitted the amendment that we had submitted in the committee and was rejected by the majority – which soon reached the quorum – again. Mr. Minister, let us hope – I am in your place – that you will find a majority tomorrow to reject my amendment. However, if you now give a positive vote advice, then that is the better.

Mr. Leterme, I agree with you when you say that the majority must be present, both in the plenary session and in the committees.

First of all, I would like to thank the parliamentarians for being more in the plenary session than in the committee. I confirm that I will again request the rejection of this amendment because I believe that it does not change anything in the substance. It would only modify the form a little, but it does not change anything with regard to the entry into force of the text. As I specified in the committee, circulars addressed to all members of the administrations will formally take up a single date of entry into force. I understand the concern of Mr. Leterme to speak again about this point in the tribune and I associate with his satisfaction to see so many members present in the plenary session.