The tax reform project carried out by the Minister of Finance Vincent Van Peteghem (CD&V) provides for the abolition of the advantageous regime of “warrant” plans for salary bonuses which benefit from an exemption from social security contributions making them particularly attractive, reports L’Echo on Saturday .
According to the latest figures from the ONSS (2021), 136,000 employees benefit from a stock option plan, which are essentially warrant plans. In total, the stock option plans weigh 1.42 billion euros.
Tax optimization
Initially, these plans mostly benefited corporate executives and senior managers. But they have gradually been extended to all categories of staff for salary optimization purposes. The financial sector and the pharma sector (at GSK for example) are particularly fond of it.
Given its widespread use in the banking sector and beyond, Febelfin defends the maintenance of the advantageous mechanism of warrant plans: “The reforms envisaged, if they are implemented, will have the effect of rendering these remuneration instruments ineffective. The direct consequence will be a reduction in the net salary of the workers concerned, since it is financially impossible for employers in Belgium to compensate for this loss with another tool”.
“The working middle class seems to have to pay for Vincent Van Peteghem’s dream of tax reform”
“We regret that the active middle class seems to have to pay for Vincent Van Peteghem’s dream of tax reform”, reacts Bart Pollentier, director of the knowledge center of the SD Worx social secretariat.
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