Belgium enters 2020 with a hole of more than 2 billion euro in its tax revenue, De Tijd reported on Saturday. Weaker growth, lower interest rates and fewer dividends are pushing the budget even further into the red.
The 2019 budget is the last one to have been drafted in its entirety by the Michel government. A tax revenue forecast of 120 billion euro has been made for 2019. The monitoring committee's first report dating from the summer turned out to be very optimistic. At the time, tax revenue had been adjusted downward by 1.9 billion. The total budgetary deficit was then fixed at 7 billion.
It now emerges from SPF Finances statistics that the situation has worsened. Based on an extrapolation of revenue until November inclusive, total tax revenue ought to drop below 118 billion, some 2.3 billion less than originally foreseen, according to De Tijd.
The tax authorities did not wish to confirm the exact amount before the year was out.
The Brussels Times
