Belgium’s Federal Public Service Finance uses SAS® Viya® to better understand the effects of tax reform
There’s nothing as certain to raise public outcry as unfair taxes. But it can be complicated to predict the impact of even a small change in tax laws on a vast and varied population. This is especially true for Belgium’s personal income tax because the calculations are so complex.
To complete a personal income tax filing, the average Belgian fills in 10 to 20 fields of a form and later receives a two- or three-page document that calculates their final tax bill. From a technical point of view, a tax declaration consists of 3,000 distinct declaration codes, and the calculation involves 65,000 lines of business logic. Multiply that by 7 million taxpayer returns.
Adriaan Luyten, Head of the Tax Policy Unit in the research department of Federal Public Service (FPS) Finance in Brussels, says that getting a better handle on the potential effects of future tax reforms is a valuable contribution to public policy making. He and his team have been assigned to profile the “winners” and “losers” before regulations are implemented.
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