The GAFA tax in Belgium, this forgotten tax
In 2020, the De Croo government undertook to introduce, in 2023, a national tax on the Gafa if an international agreement was not found. We are still waiting for it. Yet no one in the Vivaldi seems to remember his promise…
It’s a political recipe who never misses. Even though the budget revenue would be very uncertain.
Take a party president, a member of the federal majority or, if need be, a plump minister.
Turn it over once or twice and grab it by bringing it back to a government agreement commitment.
Debit his answer in very small pieces.
If what you get is a sputtering salad, seasoned with uncertain suggestions like “but that’s theOECD who takes care of it… No? Or is it notEurope? “, and relieved of a touch of surprise” Ah yes? It’s us ? Sure ? you can serve.
It is the tax on digital services, known as “tax Gafa”that Belgium is supposed to introduce in 2023but that everyone is forgotten.
It was however drawn with a very firm pen, far from the insipid preparations on requesting the seven party presidents had agreed all along this menu of 98 pages.
At the end of the legislature, in one way or another, they were finally going cashierthe Gafa – Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon, the fifth digital giant, Microsoft, being concerned only at the margin. The four multinationals that value raw data and bring their profits far and wide are fattening unbearably.
And the Vivaldi was going to put them on a diet.
“A form of digital taxation must emerge. Belgium is taking the initiative in discussions on the subject at international level (OECD and EU). An international agreement will be preferred. If such an agreement cannot be reached (within the OECD and the EU), Belgium introduces a tax on digital services in 2023“, is it thus written on page 53 of the government agreement.
In the European Union, France – which withdrew 375 million euros in revenue in 2020 –, theItalythe Czech Republic and theAustria have already adopted such legislation, which quite significantly upsets habits in terms of corporate taxation: it tax turnover – generally calculated as a proportion of its worldwide activity – realized in a given country rather than the profits possibly received by the central Bureau.
According to the budget tables appended to the menu signed by the seven chefs of the Vivaldi, One hundred million euros would flow into the federal coffers as soon asfiscal year 2023.
Two years later, when Alexandre DeCroo and his clerks suddenly prepare a gargantuan budget for two services, 2023 and 2024, no one talks about it anymore, neither in the dining room nor in the kitchen.
The Hundred Million Recipe euros was still included in the trajectory calculations presented with the 2022 budget last October.
It was a few months after some progress that we decided, in the “discussions on the matter at the international level” don’t speak government agreement.
L’European Unionat the time, had indeed already launched a initiative aiming to introduce taxation of digital services, and Belgium considered above.
If such an agreement cannot be found (within the OECD and the EU), Belgium will introduce a tax on digital services in 2023.
Joe Biden’s Sensitive Stomach
But this regional initiative was thwartedand rendered null and void, by a american pulseso global.
In June 2021, in fact, Joe Biden convinced his colleagues from the G7, then the G20, then the OECD, to resolve together “tax challenges increased by the digitization of the economy“. This solution model, validated in October 2021 by 137 OECD memberswas based on two pillars: a first which provided for the reallocation of the taxation weighing on the largest multinational companies towards the countries where they exercised a commercial activity and no longer just where they physically sit – therefore, for the Gafa, not in the United States… – and a second who promotes a minimum worldwide tax 15% on the profits of multinationals.
The two pillars thus defined, and especially the first, would make national Gafa taxes not only useless, but, above all, prohibited. This is basically what Joe Biden wantedwhose acronym letters are fellow companies.
the CD&V Minister of Finance did not say anything other than his colleague from the White House. “All the members of the G7 plead for a cancellation of measures unilateral taxation of digital services parallel to the entry into force of the projects Pillars one and twobut it will still be necessary to define these plans more precisely”, specified, effectively, Vincent Van Peteghembefore the House Finance Committee on June 30, 2021.
The Gafa with Belgian sauce was doomed to expire quickly, even before it could be cooked. Belgium was going to receive it ready, in trays prepared at the OECD through the European Union. However, today, it appears that neither of the two pillars will be erected before 2023.
L’15% tax on multinationals suffers in Europe from a food ban imposed by the Hungary. The other members hope to lift it in the fall – and some even intend to ignore the Hungarian reluctance.
But whatever the consequences for Belgian public finances (estimates ranging from €10.5 billion per year according to the European Observatory of Taxation at… a hundred million euros, according to a study by the SPF Finances), it is certain that this cumbersome tax will not be ingested before 2024.
It was also provided for in the government agreement, and budget to 300 million from 2023. The PS makes it the main course of its political comeback. He wants Belgium to concoct this aperitif tax for itself alone to wait for the most invigorating European taxation.
As for the first pillar, which is more about presenting the Gafathe revised OECD calendar now guarantees that it will not be ready to be tasted next year.
The organization is now committed to completing “a new multilateral convention by mid-2023, for a entry into force expected in 2024“, specified its secretary general in a report translated “to the finance ministers and governors of the central bank of the G20 countries” last July, before their feast in Indonesia.
The Belgium is therefore certain of not being able to count on the one hundred million spent in 2023 if she does not prepare in her corner over the next few weeks.
However, no one seems to want to light this stove, in the black-yellow-red kitchen.
Above all, do not believe that it is because in the land of Coca-Cola, McDonald’s and, above all, Gafa, we would find that indigestible.