Belgium starts June with approximately 60,000 cases of Coronavirus registered. Although wish a less harmful impact than some of its neighbors, the country has been affected by a higher number of deaths. His government’s action was not long in coming and from the very beginning of this pandemic, it began to take action on tax compliance and payroll management matters to confront the crisis.
Thus, initiatives such as the approval, on May 2, 2020 by the Council of Ministers, of the introduction of a special type of leave known as Coronavirus parental leave; the modification of the percentages of Impôt sur les Revenus (increasing the percentages of benefits from early payments in the third and fourth installments) or the postponement of the maturities of business loans.
On 19 May 2020, the competent authorities of Luxembourg and Belgium proceeded to sign a mutual agreement for the avoidance of double taxation and the settlement of certain other matters with regard to taxes on income and on wealth in order to consider the situation related to the Covid-19 crisis. It shall apply for the period from 11 March 2020 to 30 June 2020. From 1 July 2020, the application of the Agreement shall be extended until the end of each month if both competent authorities agree in writing at least one week before the beginning of the month.
But beyond these specific updates, the country is already starting to look to the future with the objective of recovery, going back to the normality and reactivation of economy. Regarding this, Belgium will receive from the European Union some 5.48 billion euros of the 750 foreseen in the plan to promote the economy after the appearance of the COVID-19.
The Belgian Minister of European Affairs reacted positively to the European Union recovery plan presented on Wednesday by the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen. The “Next Generation EU” plan aims to revive the economies of European states whose GDP has suffered most from the COVID-19 pandemic. According to the Commission’s allocation key, Italy would receive more than 172 billion euros and Spain 140 billion. France, the fourth largest beneficiary, to cite a few examples.
Although the plan has not yet been approved by the EU states, the President of the European Council, Charles Michel, asked the 27 member countries to agree to the Commission’s proposal at the summit on 19 June. The idea is to do everything possible to get this agreement approved before the summer. The European Parliament has welcomed the plan, with countries like France and Germany – which have great weight in the European economy – supporting the implementation of the plan.
By combining the internal effort already made in terms of taxation and payroll liquidity, together with EU support, and other measures of all kinds such as robots that will help detect the disease in hospitals, Belgium is already starting to look to the future post-Coronavirus.
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