In our country, a tax rule allows footballers to pay very little tax. As an example, the show ‘C’est pas tous les jours dimanche’ takes Simon Mignolet’s salary. The Red Devil is the highest paid football player in our league with a salary of 300,000 euros per month.
However, social security takes into account a fictitious salary of 2426 euros to calculate its contributions. Result: the player of Club Brugge pays only 900 euros per month for his contributions.
This advantage was intended to allow Belgian clubs to attract foreign talent looking for a high net income. The government wishes to reform this rule in order to make it fairer in relation to the reality on the ground. This reform would allow, according to the government, to collect 30 million euros for social security.
“This regime is the same as the researchers who work in high-tech companies. Employers also pay less tax for these people in order to be able to keep them in Belgium.“, explains the former president of Standard, Roland Duchâtelet.
“Football is the same”, continues the one who is still the president of the club of Sint-Truiden. “The sports market is extremely important in the world and football alone represents half of this market. (…) For us, football has become a cutting edge industry. [La Belgique] is very strong in it at the global level and the fact that the Red Devils are so strong, it helps a lot the companies (of all types, note) in Belgium to position themselves well vis-à-vis the French, the Germans, the Swiss, etc.”
Through these explanations of the influence of Belgian football on the whole country, the businessman tries to make it understood that this regime, which allows to offer very advantageous salaries, allows Belgian clubs to better train future big stars. discipline while remaining competitive on the sporting and financial levels.
Another guest of this debate, Gilles Vanden Burre, head of the Ecolo-Groen group in the chamber. “This system, today, costs 200 million [de manque à gagner] social security, only for Division 1 football “, he explains. “There is an agreement at the level of the government’s budget conclave to reform the system so that it is fairer. Today, there is no ceiling. If you earn 100,000 euros per month as a football player, you continue to pay on the basis of 2426 euros.”
Another advantage that football clubs know: they are exempt from 80% of the withholding tax so that they invest in the training of young people. “It’s a different system“, emphasizes Gilles Vanden Burre.” IThere is one condition: that of investing in young people. It is not only to favor the highest wages.”
And Roland Duchâtelet to conclude: “It is really wrong to say that football clubs cost social security. This is really wrong, all clubs pay for the membership fee. When I was president of Standard, we paid 8 million euros per year to the Belgian state. If we change the system, there will be no more high-level football in Belgium and all that as a tax will not be collected anyway..”
