'Withholding tax raised to 25 percent?'

As a solution to the budget deficit the withholding tax on interest on savings certificates, term accounts and savings accounts would be raised from 15 to 25 percent. This tax is automatically deducted from the revenue of the money, but for the ordinary savings account there is a tax exemption up to 1730 Euros (rate) per taxpayer.

The government-Van Rompuy would get some 1.1 billion Euros from this new tax revenue, another 1.1 billion Euros from the banks and the energy sectors and the third part from cost savings.
Besides these revenues also new expenditures are planned, estimated at 650 million Euros and these expenditures will include new prisons.

Sara Goris

De Tijd

Do you also spend more than you have?

More and more Belgians have an increasing debt on their bank accounts. Holders of a current account are allowed to have a negative bank balance of exactly € 1250. But this indirect way of credit loan is being abused to an increasing extent. According to an inquiry conducted by Febelfin, one out of five bank accounts were in the red at a certain moment in 2008. Unfortunately this trend is proceeding and in the first half of 2009 they have observed a 10% rise in comparison with 2008.

Dennis Ingelbeen

Get the most out of your savings account!

A recent survey showed that online and smaller banks offer better savings rates in comparison with the four large banks in Belgium.
When, for example, people opened a Fortis savings account in 2007, they earned a 1.75% Annual Percentage Yield, while they would have earned 3.5% on a Credit Europe savings account. Reason for this difference is that the online and smaller banks have fewer overhead costs and therefore they can offer their clients better interest rates. Unfortunately, a lot of Belgians don’t really compare the rates of different banks and as a result they tend to stick with their traditional bank, earning less interest.

Matthias Lelie

De Standaard Online

Extra bank charges

Dutch banks charge a high tariff for old bank statements.
When Dutch people need bank statements (older than their free bank retention period), they have to pay 3€ (ING)- 5€ (Rabobank).
Thanks to online banking, the paper costs are lower, which might compensate for the cost of an extra free retention period.
The consumer association wants the banks to extend their free retention period to three years, or even better, to five years.

Ine Laleman
Source

Dehaene, new financial chief in football town!

UEFA will monitor in the future the financial situation of all the European football clubs very strictly, therefore they recently approved the principle of ‘financial fair play’ and set up an independent group which will control all their financial actions and penalize if necessary. Former Prime Minister Jean-Luc Dehaene will be at the head of this group, consisting a panel of financial and legal experts. This new plan limits the expenses of the big clubs and aims for a healthy trade balance, it will no longer be possible to spend more money than there is on your account just as it will obligate them to draw up a balanced budget. So the time of being mister nice guy for a couple of years, spend a lot of money, make loads of debts and to drag your club like that on the edge of a bankruptcies is over.

Jordy De Vos

Sporza

Was the credit crunch really the main course of this crisis?

The real reason for the recession wasn't the credit crunch because the statistics show an increase of granting of credit, that means that there isn’t a deficit of money or a credit crunch. But, if it wasn’t a credit crunch, what are the reasons for this recession?

It can be a crisis of trust because people thought that the credit crunch was coming, the statistics don’t show this because, it can have an effect on it, but just at a short time and statistics are based on a long time The fact is, that the credit crunch wasn’t there but many people lost their trust in the financial world, so it can have an effect on it, but it can’t be the real reason .

Charlotte De Zaeyer

Analyse - Analyse Mathijs Bouman: Dit is geen kredietcrisis - Z24.nl

Why not trade under the counter?

According to the BBI, the Belgian authority for finances, regularizing black money is punished by a pecuniary fine that is much to low according to the crime. The penalty only amounts to several percents of the figure that is traded under the counter. It’s thus much lower than the taxes that would have to be paid when the transaction was done over the counter. The BBI is now analyzing the law in order to change it and thus avoid the increasing sales under the counter.

Thibo Lidou (group 6)