2016 and nothing has changed. Even more so since yesterday.

48 comments
  1. And that’s why it’s nonsense to talk about netto salary because you don’t know the personnal situation of the person you compare yourself to.

    Always compare yearly gross salary.

    Personally I was saving money like a madman when I was single and sole responsible of the money purse.

    Now I’m what they call “wettelijk samen” with two kids and it’s much more difficult to save money.

    Maybe people that have kids are also facing higher costs and do benefit from a tax cut as single don’t face the same costs. (That sentence is a /s for Reddit)

    Also, I wonder how they are calculating a 49.45% tax rate on the 31k Bruto of Peter.

    The marginal tax rate is as such in Belgium:
    – 25% from 0 to 13.340€
    – 40% from 13.341 to 23.720€
    – 45% from 23.721 to 41.060€
    – 50% from 41.051 to infinity

    So Peter should pay:
    – 25% on 12340€
    – 40% on 10380€
    – 45% on 7564€

    So a total of 10.890€ of tax for a bruto of 31284 which is 35% of his yearly gross wage and not 49,45%

    I smell bullshit.

  2. Gave half my earnings to the government and never even got a thank you. I went to the tax office one time fully expecting to get a coffee and a piece of pie for all these years of faithfully paying my taxes and they would hardly give me the time of the day!

  3. Ik vraag mij altijd af of ze in zo’n studies ook rekening houden met BTW en accijnzen en van die dingen. Iemand?

  4. So what would it be for high earning couples? When comparing people with similar wages the difference doesnt seem to high other than the single dad. Would this matter much for middle to high end earners?

  5. Het is toch wel erg gesteld eigenlijk. Ze doen niks anders dan ‘scheiden’ en ‘single zijn’ te promoten in de boekskes en gazetten en andere media en dan zijn er nog van die zotten die daarin trappen ook. Lang leven het gezinsleven!

  6. If Belgian politicians are going to interpret this demand, they’re going to increase the taxes for married people to match the tax rate of singles, not the other way around. Can’t we all agree that everyone pays too much taxes?

  7. Yea.. all the politicians in 2016: Oh let’s fix this.

    Reality in 2021: Oh we made it worse.

    Business as usual.

  8. Not quite. The BBSZ *usually* disadvantages singles, so removing it advantages them.

    An analysis from a couple of years ago:

    https://trends.knack.be/economie/beleid/waarom-de-bijzondere-bijdrage-voor-de-sociale-zekerheid-op-de-schop-moet/article-opinion-1453059.html

    Also just on Radio1 and in the news, the link isn’t even up yet, a professor contradicting the notion that this is bad for singles as well.

    edit: https://radio1.be/luister/select/de-wereld-vandaag/afschaffing-bijzondere-bijdrage-sociale-zekerheid-is-wel-goed-voor-alleenstaanden

    In other words: it’s too complicated, good riddance.

  9. Isn’t this just a different (more pessimistic) point of view? The other groups (such as married people) get benefits because it’s a more preferred situation (less infrastructure needed for housing) or a higher cost (raising children costs money).

    I don’t see why single people should get tax cuts.

  10. This is a reason why quite a number of single people end up starting a self employment job after hours (bijberoep). If you have e.g. a hobby that you can exploit, create a self employed activity around it and subtract all the costs you would have normally anyway as professional costs. You end up with some extra revenue sometimes but your purchases now have less tax burden on them.

    Plus points if you end up with a loss at the end of the year cause you get some of your paid taxes back (from your main profession). Just make sure you have a bit of profit from your activity every 2-3 years so the tax administration doesn’t flag you for closer investigation.

  11. The images in this article alone cause so many questions…

    Youssef earns 77.977 bruto (167%). Elena en Koen also earn 167% of the average wage together. Somehow their bruto wage is more than 1k eur lower… Maths is hard.

    Generally these images compare people with a single income to families or couples with similar combined (!) incomes. No shit that results in lower taxes. If they were taxed individually as singles on these low incomes, they’d also fall into lower tax brackets.

    The closest we can come to comparing; assuming the numbers are correct, are wouter and sam vs peter. Wouter and Sam as couple earn almost double that of peter. They’re taxed 1.77% less. I agree that shouldn’t exist; they should be taxed equally.

    The difference of this 1.77% less tax on a full year is lower than the fiscal advantage of a salary car in a month…

  12. Does someone want to go to brussels to protest? A bit like the yellow vests in france. Maybe block the entrance of some schools?

  13. Onze staat heeft wel nog steeds niet echt graag vrouwen en migranten, Jolien betaald meer dan Peter en Youssef betaald meer dan Jolien… /s Al verdien ze telkens wel een pak meer.

    Sofie en Wim mogen ze ook wel wat meer belasten daar het tweeverdieners zijn en Wouter en Sam ook want daar komen geen kinderen van. /s

  14. Netto per volwassene gesorteerd op basis van brutoinkomen per persoon:

    ||Bruto|Aantal Volwassenen|Kinderen?|Berekening|Netto per volwassene|
    |:-|:-|:-|:-|:-|:-|
    |Jonas en Annelies|100% + 0%|2|Ja|`(1.00/2) * (100-40.41)`|29.80%|
    |Peter|67%|1|Nee|`0.67 * (100-49.45)`|33.87%|
    |Wouter en Sam|100% + 33%|2|Nee|`(1.33/2) * (100-47.68)`|34.80%|
    |Sofie en Wim|100% + 33%|2|Ja|`(1.33/2) * (100-41.38)`|38.98%|
    |Jan|67%|1|Ja|`0.67 * (100-35.78)`|43.03%|
    |Elena en Koen|100% + 67%|2|Ja|`(1.67/2) * (100-48.31)`|43.16%|
    |Jolien|100%|1|Nee|`1.00 * (100-55.31)`|44.69%|
    |Youssef|167%|1|Nee|`1.67 * (100-60.69)`|65.65%|

    Conclusie:

    – Als aleenstaande heb je netto per volwassene ongeveer evenveel als dat je met 2 personen bent.
    – Als je kinderen hebt, heb je netto wat meer.
    – Een aleenstaande met kinderen heeft per volwassene netto meer dan een koppel met kinderen.
    – Als je bruto per persoon meer inkomsten hebt, gaat je netto er ook op vooruit.
    – Yussef moet niet klagen, want hij heeft per persoon nog altijd netto meer dan alle anderen per persoon, en zelfs meer dan Jonas en Annelies samen, en dat zonder kinderen.

  15. Perfect voorbeeld waarom journalistiek echt een pak beter moet.

    Geen enkel geval is onderling vergelijkbaar. Riooljournalistiek dus.

    In de personenbelasting betaalt een single geen euro meer dan een persoon die evenveel verdient als deel van een gezin.

    Hoewel er veel beter kan aangepakt worden moeten we misschien ook beseffen dat alleen wonen gewoon ook duurder is voor de maatschappij en dus hoger belast worden niet meer dan normaal.

    Bijvoorbeeld, het kadastraal inkomen is een belasting op de kost voor de Staat van een huis, het is geen belasting op een persoon. Niet meer dan logisch dat die belasting dus inderdaad zwaarder doorweegt op een single.

  16. Verschiet ervan dat ze het nu bekend maken. Toen ik single was, zei ik dat ook op de enkele single vrienden en collega’s na interesseerde het niemand. Triestig.

  17. Ik ga op deze thread is naar “controversial” want ik denk dat daar de echte meningen te vinden zijn.

  18. This is all due to incredibly unnecessary complex tax rules. I mean the rate should be flat with a fixed % reduction if you have kids.

  19. How giving more than 50% of the money you worked for back to the state (and its 6 governments) has become the accepted norm is beyond me.

  20. This article pulls at some extremes
    the 60% is largely in part due to individual high earnings which puts him in another tax bracket

    the couple with 2 kids only has a 1% difference with the midrange income of that first example

    Like yeah
    doesn’t it make sence that people with kids gets to paid a bit less taxes, so they can actually financially support those kids?

    Living togheter and marriage each come with a risk to your finances

    There’s this little caveat in the law that basically states that if someone helps pay the bills, they will become entitled to your home

    This can become a 50/50 split if this goes on for a few years

    regardless of whether or not this is even close to actually helping with the monthly mortgage

    As someone who is single in the eyes of the law but is in a relationship, a true single person can save up a lot of money but just not being in a relationship

  21. Is er ergens een link naar hoe deze percentages tot stand kwamen? Dan weten we wellicht ook meteen waar de verschillen allemaal zitten.

  22. And this is why if my relationship ever goes sour I am hauling my ass to Croatia or Poland as fast as possible

  23. Meanwhile, BigCorp has thrown toxic waste in the water and was taxed -1M for their efforts. Sorry, we’re going to have to cut x and y to get new choppers for the army. Thanks for working, suckers. Xoxo, Belgium

  24. I’m not really fussed about marriage but honestly this would help motivate me talking about engagement with my gf if we reach that point… obviously I’ll be transparent about that as well. These bills are ridiculous.

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