Belgians massively behind wealth tax

As Belgian political parties debate how best to curb the budget deficit (raising the VAT from 21 to 22 percent and scrapping next year’s wage indexation being two solutions frequently evoked), a poll suggests that 75 percent of Belgians are in favour of a wealth tax. The results, published in Le Soir after a study using a sample of 987 people , also show that 80 percent of respondents support a tax on speculative stock exchange transactions. Sixty-nine percent are in favour of higher taxation on company cars, while 86 percent are opposed to a VAT increase. As for scrapping the wage indexation, only 5 percent of respondents are in favour, but the figure rises to 53 percent if the measure applies only to high earners.