After attacking copyrights, the tax authorities are now trying to reclassify residential rent of private home-owners to professional income.
If private person rents out one or more homes in Belgium, he will only taxed on the basis of the indexed cadastral income of those homes x 1.4.
But Minister of Finance Vincent Van Peteghem (CD&V), after his crusade against copyright, is now going to address a new gray area: those who rent out "too many" homes privately and finance their purchase through a credit are now risking that their rental income will be revised to professional income. Instead of starting to clearly define the blurred line between private rental and professional rental, the minister is now abusing this gray zone himself to to produce more tax revenues.
Wealthy families with sufficient own funds can thus continue to benefit from this favorable tax rate, but those who bought income-producing houses with borrowed money to build up equity are now potentially threatened with a financial hangover.
You will own nothing and be happy ...