The social contributions that football clubs have to pay are still not comparable to what the ordinary man or company has to pay. The withholding tax has dropped from 80 percent to 75 percent, but Minister Vincent Van Peteghem sees that the money is still not going to the right department.
Van Peteghem would have preferred to reform social security contributions more thoroughly. “A system must first and foremost be fair.”
“The football sector can continue to look for a way to explain to cleaners, bakers or clerks and other companies why athletes who earn a lot of money receive certain benefits from the government that they do not receive,” he explains in HLN.
“The normal course of events is that everyone who earns a certain amount pays the same percentage of taxes on their wages. Why not football players? I can’t sell that – it’s just impossible to explain.”
Money for youth training, not for wages
The biggest thorn in Van Peteghem’s side. The money released largely goes to wages, which have already risen. The wage burden in Belgium amounts to 16 million, while in the Netherlands it is only 11 million.
“Because of this evolution, we see that the current tax arrangement has an undesirable side effect. The higher the wages a club pays, the more taxes it does not have to pay to the government but can instead respend at its own discretion.”
Would Club Brugge be in the semi-finals of the Conference League if they could not pay those enormous wages? “To be clear – those elements are separate. If the support were decisive, it would be better to have FPS Finance on your shirt instead of Unibet.”
Van Peteghem wants his proposal back on the table. “But if we want to remain a training competition, we must invest in that absolute basis. And that remains: the youth and the infrastructure. Not the player wages.”
Tags: Minister Finance whistles clubs FPS Finance shirt Unibet Football News
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