The French-speaking liberal party finally approved the federal budget for 2023 on Wednesday after the uncertainty about a possible reform of the copyright tax was at last put to rest by Federal Finance Minister Vincent Van Peteghem.
There had been much discussion between different factions of the Federal Government about whether the droits d'auteur tax bracket would be reformed. Currently the lowest tax bracket under Belgian law, changes would have altered the financial status of many of Belgium's self-employed workers.
Parliament's approval of the 2023 federal budget depended on the vote of the French-speaking liberal party MR which had until Wednesday failed to consent to the proposed budget due to a lack of clarity on a reform of copyright tax.
Helping self-employed
This favourable tax system was created in 2008 to ease the tax burden on self-employed workers in Belgium and is now applied in various sectors, such as journalism and in the IT industry.
With only 7.5% of their gross salary deducted, this scheme is the least taxed within Belgian law. The Federal Government was looking to reduce the access to and application of the tax in their upcoming budget for 2023.
"Is it alright that some activities are taxed at 7.5% while most citizens living on a regular income pay the normal tax rates?" As asked by the Federal Finance Minister Vincent Van Peteghem in parliament.
However, this proposal was vehemently opposed by various parties, with centrist politicians from Les Engagés and DéFI deploring the negative impact it might have on Belgium's burgeoning IT industry, and Sofie Merckx of the radical left-wing party PTB stating her concern for freelance journalists who are already "struggling to make ends meet."
Translation of tweet: "Copyright reform: the Federal Government is divided. I strongly intervened in parliament to denounce the major risks to our economy and democracy. The IT sector and freelance journalists will be the big losers of this reform. The legal insecurity will be gaping!"
As a result of the potential impact on businesses and self-employed workers in Belgium, the French-speaking liberal party MR had failed to agree to the reform, a stumbling block for the passing of the budget in parliament.
On Wednesday though, there appeared to be a breakthrough as the MR's fears over certain sectors being excluded from the tax scheme seemed to have been ascertained by the Federal Finance Minister.
Indeed, the party's parliamentary leader Benoît Piedboeuf thanked Van Peteghem in the Chamber of Representatives for "confirming once again that the draft does not include the notion of restrictive interpretation," which seemingly confirmed that no sector was set to be specifically excluded.
Translation of tweet: "Vincent Van Petghem has confirmed that no sector will be excluded from the copyright regime and that the draft bill does not contain any restrictive interpretation. We therefore refer to common and European law as interpreted by the Court of Justice. IT unchanged! Word kept!"
