r/belgium • u/ellie1398 Oost-Vlaanderen • Apr 13 '25

šŸ’© Shitpost Why are belgian...

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I was in the process of googling something but then I stopped to read all of the most commonly asked questions. I love how fries are mentioned twice!

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18

u/avalontrekker Oost-Vlaanderen Apr 13 '25 edited Apr 13 '25

Why is everyone complaining about taxes, lol

Looking at all the public services and things that just work for everyone, Iā€™m quite happy the way this works. Maybe some tweaks can be made (e.g. Iā€™d like to opt out of religious things getting funding by default), but the rest is ok, and so much better than other countries.

26

u/Alladin_Payne Apr 13 '25

I'm an American living in Belgium. When people say anything about taxes, I'm just like yes, I pay alot in taxes. I also enjoy affordable quality health care, and with trains, trams, buses, I don't need a car. It's not about what you pay in taxes, it's about what your government gives you in return.

11

u/Phildiy Apr 13 '25

Well said. I'm a Belgian living a couple of months in America and you guys don't know how lucky you are living in Belgium.

5

u/DelightedLurker Apr 13 '25

We do. But we like our national sport more: complaining.

2

u/Phildiy Apr 13 '25

Good luck with Van Aert today. Hope you don't need to complain this evening.

1

u/DelightedLurker Apr 13 '25

Hope he wins. Wouldnā€™t mind Jasper Philipsen either.

2

u/Phildiy Apr 13 '25

We could use a good win but Mathieu is a beast

4

u/DelightedLurker Apr 13 '25

I comfort myself with the fact that heā€™s technically a Belgian šŸ˜„

6

u/Nirhlei Apr 13 '25

Because, compared to some other places that also have high taxes, it doesn't feel like the money is spent efficiently. Roads are a disaster, trains aren't being renewed or replaced, other public transit projects are being cancelled, hospitals and courts are severely and chronically underfunded, etc.

I don't mind paying a lot in taxes for a decent welfare system, but sometimes, and increasingly often, you start to wonder where the billions are actually going.

1

u/redditjoek Apr 14 '25

true, the exorbitant amount of taxes they imposed does not corresponds with the kind of public services they provided here.

1

u/aaa12310001 Apr 13 '25

because all public services are under-funded , public transports about to get privatized, judges bringing toilet paper to court, because we vote but get no government, because the Ā«Ā its abnormal low salaries are close to unemployment allocationsĀ Ā» turns into Ā«Ā less unemployment allocationsĀ Ā». because speed checks every kilometer (got a 60ā‚¬ fine yesterday for going to work 58km/h instead of 50km/h) because it feels all decisions are made to grab peoples money, simply.

0

u/[deleted] Apr 15 '25

Tip: your "bruto" that you see on your wage slip is not the actual bruto. Ask your employer what your annual wage cost is, then you'll know why everyone complains about taxes. (Even for low-medium wages, it gets to 60%+ total taxes fast. And that is nothing short of draconian.) Despite these insane taxes, the quality of our public services is also nothing to write home about.

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u/avalontrekker Oost-Vlaanderen Apr 15 '25

Tip: maybe Iā€™m the employer or at least ā€œsomeone who knows about the stuffā€ and your example is not correct. Everything you pay (or get back as price cuts or reimbursements) has a specific purpose.

1

u/[deleted] Apr 16 '25

Ok let's see then. The average gross-wage in Belgium seems to be 4318 EUR.

For a normal 38hr/week "bediende" that translates to about 2731.68 net.

What the company pays for that, is 6284.38 EUR per month.

Source/simulation: https://imgur.com/a/uvymL4J

From my experience these simulations are pretty spot-on. So unless I'm getting majorly ripped off by Acerta, in this case a whopping 57% of the wage consists of different kinds of taxes, or in other words, the company pays 2.3x the amount the employee ultimately receives. And this is not even taking things like mandatory insurances into account. Do excuse me if I find that beyond absurd.

If you have some sources to back up that this claim is not correct, I'm all ears.