While Belgium is facing another major round of budget cuts, two parties in the Federal Government – Dutch-speaking socialists Vooruit and French-speaking centrists Les Engagés – want to introduce an already-much-discussed wealth tax.
Vooruit and Les Engagés are both proposing a millionaire’s tax to tap into new sources of revenue. The Flemish socialists already advocated for this on 1 May (Labour Day), while the French-speaking centrists did the same last week.
"If you are asking the whole population to make a sacrifice, it is only natural that everyone should do their bit," said Les Engagés leader Yves Verougstraete last week.
The wealth tax must help to distribute the burden fairly, he stressed. However, Verougstraete also stated that his party was "open to arrangements" in specific cases, such as a cap or an exemption for active entrepreneurs.
What's on the table?
Les Engagés proposes introducing the wealth tax for anyone with assets of at least €500,000 (excluding residential property).
The party wants a tax of 0.15% on assets between €500,000 and €1 million, 0.3% on assets between €1-2 million, 0.45% on assets between €2-3 million, and 0.60% on assets above €3 million.
According to the party, this could generate up to €2 billion.
Vooruit, meanwhile, is targeting anyone with total financial assets exceeding €1 million (also excluding residential property). This means no extra tax on people's homes and their first million.
Anything that exceeded that amount would be taxed at 0.3%, meaning that someone with assets of €2 million would have to pay €3,000 each year.
This could raise €1 billion per year, according to Vooruit.
MR leader Georges-Louis Bouchez and Prime Minister Bart De Wever in the federal parliament, in Brussels, Thursday 5 June 2025. Credit: Belga
When Vooruit previously proposed its "millionaire's tax" back in May, the party did not receive much backing from governing partners. Now, the socialists said that Les Engagés' proposal is "quite similar in principle" to their own, and that they will "certainly be pulling in the same direction".
However, the Francophone liberals (MR) and Prime Minister Bart De Wever's Flemish nationalist N-VA are vehemently against such a tax, as are the Flemish Christian Democrats (CD&V).
These parties already had to accept the capital gains tax on financial products – a measure that was introduced only after much reluctance. Once that measure was approved, MR leader Georges-Louis Bouchez made it clear that he would not approve another tax on the rich.
On the other hand, Les Engagés and Vooruit argue that "the broadest shoulders should carry the heaviest burden", but Bouchez disagrees with the parties' idea of who this would concern. "The notion that anyone with more than €500,000 automatically has ‘broad shoulders’ speaks volumes about certain parties' view of success," he said in a social media post.
Broad popular support
However, there is broad support for such an additional tax, according to the Ipsos Grand Barometer for Le Soir, RTL Info, Het Laatste Nieuws and VTM in mid-June.
As many as three-quarters (76%) of Belgians want an extra tax on the largest fortunes – making a wealth tax the most popular solution to Belgium's financial problems in the survey.
Left-wing voters are traditionally strong supporters of such a measure, but the Grand Barometer found that a large majority of right-wing voters were also in favour of a wealth tax.
Still, with just two of the five governing parties in favour, experts believe that it is unlikely that the wealth tax will see the light of day anytime soon.
A long-awaited report from the Monitoring Committee will be released on 6 July, making it clear exactly how much the Federal Government needs to save to keep the budget on track.
However, it is already widely assumed that the figure will be around €10 billion.
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