Tax shift is also ensuring extra jobs in 2017

The Tax shift There is a tax shift when a new tax is implemented or an existing tax is increased in order to reduce or get rid of another tax. The N-VA is a proponent of a shift of the burden on labour to that on consumption or environmental pollution, for example, but not of a tax that increases the total burden of taxation. tax shift of the Michel government will provide at least 41,500 new jobs this year and save 35,500 existing ones. That’s the conclusion of a recent survey by HR service provider SD Worx. According to the same survey, the tax shift is above all giving our companies an extra impetus to recruit people. This is largely the case in smaller companies that employ one to twenty employees. “The tax shift is making work noticeably cheaper,” says Minister of Finance Johan Van Overtveldt. “That has a direct and positive impact on job creation. And at the same time we are increasing the net wage, so that it literally pays more to work.”

In December, SD Worx asked 967 Belgian companies about their employment plans. One in three respondents (36%) is thinking of recruiting extra people this year, just 6% are thinking of trimming back, and the rest (58%) are expecting to finish the year with as many members of staff as in 2016.

Extra impetus

Two in five companies considering extra recruitments (39%) indicate that the tax has given them an extra impetus to do so. And 7% of them even put those recruitments down in full to the tax shift. That comes out at 6,000 extra jobs that are purely and simply attributable to the tax shift, SD Worx calculated: “For 35,500 employers, the tax shift represents the extra impetus to recruit somebody. In total that means that 41,500 new jobs are partially or wholly due to the tax shift. Among employers who are expecting to end the year with a status quo, 35,500 jobs have been saved thanks to that tax shift.”

Altogether the tax shift will therefore have an influence on approximately 77,000 jobs in 2017. “As a result, the tax shift of this government will also bear its fruits in 2017,” concludes Minister Johan Van Overtveldt.