Belgium’s government plans to halve the marital quotient, a tax benefit for married couples and legally cohabiting partners, and to stop adjusting it for inflation.
The marital quotient allows part of the income of the higher-earning partner to be transferred to the lower-earning or non-earning partner for tax purposes, which usually reduces the couple’s overall tax bill because Belgium has progressive tax rates.
Starting with the 2026 tax year, the benefit will no longer be indexed to inflation. Over time, this means its real value will decline. The government plans to gradually reduce the marital quotient by half for non-retired couples by 2029, with a slower reduction for pensioners. For couples where one partner earns little or no income, this change will result in higher taxes in the future compared to today.
“This decision is a significant step backwards in terms of support for families with members who have little or no income,” says the League of Families.
The government says it wants to encourage the work of both.
What do yo think about it ?
English: https://www.belganewsagency.eu/government-to-stop-indexation-of-marriage-quotient-tax-benefit
Dutch: https://www.nieuwsblad.be/binnenland/indexering-huwelijksquotient-permanent-stopgezet/122230389.html
French: https://www.7sur7.be/belgique/le-quotient-conjugal-ne-sera-plus-indexe~abaaa521/
Government to stop indexation of marriage quotient tax benefit
byu/AggravatingAward1204 inbelgium
Posted by AggravatingAward1204
22 Comments
>Starting with the 2026 tax year, the benefit will no longer be indexed to inflation. Over time, this means its real value will decline. The government plans to gradually reduce the marital quotient by half for non-retired couples by 2029
Am I correct to understand this in the way they will cut it in half by 2029 and then stop indexing that amount?!
Way to make sure birth rates crater.
They also silently cut, without telling anyone even the creche, the discount you get for creche price for having kids under 12 years old. Now it’s only if you have kids under 30 months old. So our creche price went up by 5 euro per day.
It’s a double fuck you to people with kids. It’s not like our pensions rely on introducing more tax payers into the system, amirite. Who needs kids
Felt like an unfair tax advantage. Be single or get divorced, well, obviously you deserve to be taxed more than your married colleague. /s
Yeh, my gf and i have been thinking about a kid. Been looking at it financially and administrative. This deffinitely doesn’t help and might be the nail in the coffin for my gf’s child dream. I’m saying my gf’s dream since even tho i would like to have a family, i’m not looking forward to a future stuck with a mortgage and kids we can’t pay for.
It shouldn’t even exist in the first place.
Classic boomer move. Marriage quotient for the boomerkes, maar niet voor de jonge mensen. Die mogen dokken voor de pensioenen.
Bartje will probably travel around a bit and make a show of himself everywhere with that money. We have to save.
It’s a tax increase plain and simple. Another one.
Our government is lead by retards, there’s no way around it.
We don’t have enough houses and being alone reduces qualitative life expectancy, so we need to have more people living together. We also need more kids. But the policy is to make it harder and less affordable. Which is funny because a lot of divorce issues rely in money issues.
CD&V should be all pro kids and nuclear family. Where the fuck did this come from? NVA hates people now?
The benefit is only worth if if your partner doesn’t work or only earns less than 13.460 EUR a year.
To be honest if you want to make working more beneficial it’s one of the measures.
As of now it’s better for the partner to not work and gain 3,4K benefit.
De “we moeten besparen, MAAR NIET OP MIJ” crew is gearriveerd.
Lol so typical. I’ve worked for two decades and am now unemployed for the first time in my life – exactly at the time they’re going to limit unemployment in time AND they start these kinds of shenanigans. Glad I paid into the system for 20 years, now that I need it due to circumstances out of my control: fuck you, drop dead. And fast please, we need the space.
And people will keep voting for the same parties in 2029 🙂
Very good. I still don’t understand why my wife & I are supposed to pay taxes for these husbands and wifes that decide to “Netflix & chill” all day.
>The government says it wants to encourage the work of both.
Why? We need to encourage childbirth with higher priority. People need to be comfortable and stable to make babies.
Probleem: alleenstaanden worden te zwaar belast in dit land. Dat is niet eerlijk!
Oplossing: gehuwden meer belasten.
Gezinspartij CD&V lijkt ook niet veel in de pap te brokken in deze regering.
Een schande deze regering kost ons echt duizenden euro’s per jaar
Why not Pensioneers? Are they more important people? They 100 percent don’t raise kids…
Tax on tax on tax, meanwhile we spend a fuckton of money on bullshit and on “not our people/country”
Amazing.
As a single, i can only applaud it.
Ik werk veel meer dan mijn vriendin, maar mijn vriendin kan dan zorgen voor het huishouden, de kinderen, etc.
Maar als mijn vriendin evenveel gaat werken als mij, dan worden we èn meer belast, èn is ons huishouden niet gedaan èn moeten we opvang betalen voor de kinderen.
Kinderen zijn geen reden voor belastingvermindering, maar het is ergens maar menselijk om de lonen samen te gooien en dan te belasten, gezien het toch voor 1 pot is en er daardoor voor te zorgen dat er toch een beetje voor de kinderen gezorgd kan worden.
That sucks for me and my family.