Tax reforms give families EUR 2,273 extra

3 August 2005

BRUSSELS — An average family with partners earning a taxable annual income of EUR 40,000 and 20,000 has gained EUR 2,273 from recent Belgian tax reforms.

A married couple with two pension-based incomes is EUR 3,354 better off since the reforms were launched four years ago.

The figures are based on simulations by tax expert Jef Wellens of Kluwer Software on request from newspaper ‘Het Belang van Limburg’.

Wellens compared the tax levied on income in 2001 — the first year of Belgium’s tax reforms — with the tax levied on income in 2004.

The latter was the most important year of the reforms when legal cohabitating couples were made equal to married couples.

It was also the year in which the separation of incomes — allowing partners to be taxed individually rather than as a family — was introduced.

The biggest winners from the tax reforms are married pensioners, newspaper ‘Het Gazet van Antwerpen’ reported on Wednesday.

Subject: Belgian news