Proposition 53K3427

Projet de loi modifiant le Code des impôts sur les revenus 1992 à la suite de l'introduction de la taxe additionnelle régionale sur l'impôt des personnes physiques visée au titre III/1 de la loi spéciale du 16 janvier 1989 relative au financement des Communautés et des Régions et modifiant les règles en matière d'impôt des non-résidents et modifiant la loi du 6 janvier 2014 relative à la Sixième Réforme de l'Etat concernant les matières visées à l'article 78 de la Constitution.

General information ¶

Submitted by

PS | SP the Di Rupo government

Submission date

March 10, 2014

Official page

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Status

Adopted

Requirement

Simple

Subjects

Brussels region Flanders (Belgium) Walloon region (Belgium) personal income tax transfer of competence direct tax regionalisation tax on income regional finances

Voting ¶

Voted to adopt

CD&V Vooruit LE PS | SP Open Vld MR

Voted to reject

∉ N-VA LDD VB

Abstained from voting

Groen Ecolo

Party dissidents ¶

• Peter Luykx (CD&V) voted to reject.

Contact form ¶

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Discussion ¶

April 22, 2014 | Plenary session (Chamber of representatives)

Full source

by MM. Damien Thiéry and Éric Thiébaut, rapporteurs, refer to their written report.

Mr. Speaker, Mr. Minister, this bill is actually the conversion of the sixth state reform to the WIB 92, with a number of amendments.

First and foremost, I would like to thank the majority for certain amendments. After four years, she finally listened carefully to what the opposition had to say. On the one hand, it is about the housing bonus. It is transferred to the provinces. I have made a number of comments. On the other hand, it is about the collective dismissal, which was intended to save from the higher marginal rate. Due to the sixth state reform and the new calculation, the marginal rate is slightly higher, which also increased the cancellation fees.

Mr. Wellens and the media have brought this to the attention of this majority. There was a lot of hassle made about those cancellation fees. It is a hot item because a lot of people are unfortunately facing it right now. Therefore, the majority wanted to make an adjustment to ensure that the marginal rate at which the cancellation fee would be taxed would still be calculated in the old way.

I am therefore very satisfied, since I know that the majority intended to apply this only if a cancellation compensation had been obtained through a collective dismissal procedure.

I am very pleased, Mr. Minister, that you have listened very carefully to our comments on this subject. We found that there was discrimination for people who had received their termination compensation through an individual dismissal, thus grabbed alongside the more favourable rate and consequently had to pay more taxes.

I would like to thank you for listening to us in this matter. I think we should guard ourselves from proceedings before the Constitutional Court or in matters of discrimination.

The regrettable thing about the whole story is that this arrangement will only apply until 2016. From then on, this exemption will no longer apply and the cancellation fee will be taxed on that higher margin rate.

So we can be satisfied for the time being.

Another point is the housing bonus. We think this will be a very complex given, especially in the first years, in which there are still all sorts of exceptional measures.

Mr. Minister, I agree with you that people should not suddenly pay more taxes by transferring this power. However, we cannot forget that this whole story, by the way this fiscality is reformed in the context of the sixth state reform, becomes much more complex. As a result of these adjustments, there are also a number of hidden tax increases.

Although this majority has joined us in our criticism, we have still voted against this bill for the sake of things that are still somewhere hidden: deductions that were reductions at a lower rate, the special social contribution that will be higher because of the new calculations of the marginal rate. That is why we voted against.

You talked about the complexity. Well, the Regions have the ability to make it easier, now that they have the powers. We are looking forward to seeing how the tax bill for 2015 and 2016 will look. I hope it doesn’t get too complex. This year, several codes have disappeared, including the abolition of the wealth tax. I think we should look forward, and I mean ironically, to a lot of additional codes in this new system. Of course, the job of a taxpayer still exists. I regret that, in all that reform, there was no further focus on simplifying the complex tax system in which we live.