Bad news for IT profiles and other architects who are excluded from the copyright tax system following Vincent Van Peteghem’s reform.
As we hinted last week in our columns, it is confirmed that in the future it will no longer be possible, or in any case much more difficult, for a series of professions (IT specialists, architects, lawyers, etc.) to benefit from the advantages of the copyright tax system. This was effectively decided by the government, which broadly approved the reform introduced by Finance Minister Vincent Van Peteghem (CD&V). A reform whose “objective is to exclude from the…
As we hinted last week in our columns, it is confirmed that in the future it will no longer be possible, or in any case much more difficult, for a series of professions (IT specialists, architects, lawyers, etc.) to benefit from the advantages of the copyright tax system. This was effectively decided by the government, which broadly approved the reform introduced by Finance Minister Vincent Van Peteghem (CD&V). A reform whose “objective is to exclude authors who are not artists or journalists from the regime”, confirms Sébastien Watelet, associate lawyer at Lawtax. Remember that the current system of copyright, set up in 2008, to upgrade certain professions, allows each author or artist to benefit from a separate tax rate of 15%. The success is such that personal income tax returns for this type of income have literally exploded in recent years. According to some figures, they would have reached more than 465 million euros in 2021, against only 108 million in 2013. Hence the desire of the minister to tighten the screw, in order to fight against what he considers to be abuses. As a result, the reform worries many employers in the IT sector such as the Walloon scale-up Odoo or the IT company Easi. “The impact will indeed not be negligible for companies active in IT, confirms Sébastien Watelet. It is very likely that they will try to compensate for the increase in taxation with a salary increase, which will of course be pleasing the minister, but could eventually have repercussions on employment.” Beyond these direct consequences for employers in the IT sector in Belgium, who will undergo a 10% wage indexation and who already have the greatest difficulty in recruiting, the reform also worries the partners of the coalition. The Secretary of State for Digitalization Mathieu Michel fears that this threatens the attractiveness of Belgian IT. “The current copyright system offers great attractiveness in terms of talent, he writes on his LinkedIn account. I understand the desire to clean up the gray area which induces impacts that we do not want. But it is important to take a position on the analysis of the impact You have to propose more innovative tax vehicles if you want to have innovative models. […] The fuel of tomorrow’s economy is talent. Taxation in a globalized world that relies on digital technology must evolve.”
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