Belgian budgetary tax measures approved: what to expect as of 2024?

In March 2023, the Belgian Minister of Finance published a proposal for a broad tax reform aiming more generally at modernising and simplifying the tax system and making the system more equitable. Items of the reform included, for example, changes to the participation exemption regime, the innovation income deduction, the investment deduction regime, the partial wage withholding tax exemption for research & development, the use of the stock option plans and the tax regime of carried interest. 

After several months, it appeared difficult to reach political agreement on the various aspects of the tax reform. In July 2023, the Prime Minister announced that negotiations on the tax reform had failed as no consensus could be reached. Although no major reform could be agreed upon, some tax measures were announced in October 2023 as part of the budget agreement. These budgetary tax measures are incorporated into a Program Law and have been approved on 21 December 2023 in Belgian Parliament in plenary session.  The Program Law has, however, not yet been published in the Belgian Official Gazette.