In the framework of of the PODCAST “Click – The Turning” of this week, we proposed to 3 experts (economists and tax experts) to redesign the Belgian tax system from a blank sheet. Before getting down to it, the three of them began by drawing up a critical picture of our current system. Here are a few selected pieces:
For Philippe Defeyt who directs the Institute for Sustainable Development and chaired the CPAS of Namur for a long time (for ECOLO): “our taxation is not integrated into a vision of society, into a political vision… so there is no longer any support. Mandatory levies are seen as an obstacle, as a punishment for those who succeed. However, we do not know how to build a quality tax system if there is not a form of membership“.
The tax lawyer, Sabrina Scarna, is not far from sharing this observation: “We have no meaning in our tax system. But there should be one! I’m not saying what political choices to make… but we should have societal objectives and ensure that taxation goes towards these objectives. This is not the case today, it is only budgetary or dogmatic. Some say: “we are going to tax the rich” and then put in place a symbolic tax on securities accounts which only brings in a few million euros : it’s a joke!“.
A problem of fairness
As for Etienne de Callataÿ, professor of economics (Unamur) and founder of Orcadia Asset Management, he believes in particular that “our tax system fails in terms of horizontal equity. You may have people who have identical abilities and who pay very different contributions. It is not normal. Furthermore, the complexity of our system poses major problems in terms of fairness and efficiency. It’s unfair that those some have the means to optimize and some don’t.“.
On the basis of these observations, the three experts formulated a whole series of concrete proposals for the in-depth reform of our system which you can find ici and in more detail in our podcast.