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BELGIUM

Depardieu moves to Belgium over tax hikes

French actor Gérard Depardieu has taken up residency in a Belgian town just one kilometre from the French border, according to the town’s mayor.

Published: 10 December 2012 10:49 CET
Depardieu moves to Belgium over tax hikes
Georges Biard

It is thought Depardieu made the move to avoid new tax hikes on the wealthy brought in by the Socialist government.

Daniel Senesael, mayor of the village of Nechin, where the star has bought a house, revealed the purchase to French press on Sunday. He also suggested Depardieu was looking into applying for Belgian residency.

"I think he wanted to enjoy the atmosphere in Belgium, our identity, the rural, bucolic setting,” Senesael said on radio station RTL on Sunday.

Depardieu will be joining the likes of the Mulliez family, owners the national French supermarket chain Auchan, who also live in the same area.

Belgium does not have the same capital gains or wealth taxes, which in France applies to people with assets over €1.3 million.

The actor made headlines last week after being charged with driving while drunk on his scooter around Paris – his second drunk driving charge of the year.

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TAXES

Beskæftigelsesfradraget: What is Denmark’s employment allowance?

Denmark's government may soon announce changes to its tax reform plans, which will give all wage earners a bigger employment allowance. What is this and how will it affect foreigners' earnings?

Published: 30 October 2023 15:21 CET
Beskæftigelsesfradraget: What is Denmark's employment allowance?

What is the employment allowance? 

The Beskæftigelsesfradraget (from beskæftigelse, meaning employment, and fradrag, meaning rebate) was brought in by the centre-right Liberal Party back in 2004, the idea being that it would incentivise people to get off welfare and into a job.

Everyone whose employer pays Denmark’s 8 percent AM-bidrag, or arbejdsmarkedsbidrag, automatically receives beskæftigelsesfradraget. Unlike with some of Denmark’s tax rebates, there is no need to apply. The Danish Tax Agency simply exempts the first portion of your earnings from income taxes. 

In 2022, beskæftigelsesfradraget was set at 10.65 percent of income with a maximum rebate of 44,800 kroner. 

How did the government agree to change the employment allowance in its coalition deal? 

In Responsibility for Denmark, the coalition agreement between the Social Democrats, the Liberals and the Moderate Party, the new government said it would set aside 5 billion kroner for tax reforms.

Of this, 4 billion kroner was earmarked for increasing the employment allowance, with a further 0.3 billion going towards increasing an additional employment allowance for single parents.

According to the public broadcaster DR, the expectation was that this would increase the standard employment  allowance to 12.75 percent up to a maximum rebate of 53,600 kroner. 

How might this be further increased, according to Børsen? 

According to a report in the Børsen newspaper, the government now plans to set aside a further 1.75 billion kroner for tax reforms, of which nearly half — about 800 million kroner — will go towards a further increase to the employment allowance. 

The Danish Chamber of Commerce earlier this month released an analysis in which it argued that by raising removing all limits on the rebate for single parents and raising the maximum rebate for everone else by 20,300 kroner, the government could increase the labour supply by 4,850 people, more than double the 1,500 envisaged in the government agreement. 

According to the Børsen, the government estimates that its new extended allowance will increase the labour supply by 5,150 people.  

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