Vooruit aims to protect pension savings by exempting them from the capital gains tax, according to the leader of the Flemish socialist party in an interview with De Standaard and Het Laatste Nieuws published on Wednesday.
In recent days, there were suggestions, notably by CD&V leader Sammy Mahdi, that Vooruit supported applying the forthcoming capital gains tax to pension savings. However, Conner Rousseau now rebuts this in the press.
According to Rousseau, the government agreement seeks a contribution from the capital gains on all financial assets. For pension savings, an 8% tax is paid on the saved amount at the age of 60.
The gains are what is saved over the following five years, and this amount is currently not taxed. The agreement proposes a contribution from these gains if they exceed €10,000.
Achieving such an amount would require a very high return in the five years post-60, which is not typical for the average saver who would owe nothing.
He criticises Sammy Mahdi and MR leader Georges-Louis Bouchez for unnecessarily alarming people on this issue.
