As a guest on Face à Buxant, Minister-President Adrien Dolimont looked back at the tax reforms undertaken by the Walloon Government and their future in a more demanding budgetary context. While the details will need to be reviewed in light of the trajectory of public finances, one thing is certain: there is no question of giving up on the objective. Evaluating in order to adjust if necessary, yes. Abandoning reforms designed to restore purchasing power to the Walloons, no.
Returning to budgetary balance is a necessity. But it is not an end in itself. For the Walloon Government, the priority is to regain room for manoeuvre in order to continue reducing the tax burden on citizens.
Asked whether certain tax reforms should be revisited in a more demanding budgetary context, Adrien Dolimont recalled a simple guiding principle: good public policy is policy that is evaluated.
It is precisely in this spirit that the reform of registration duties will be evaluated. Buyers who already own a home have, under certain conditions, three years from the date of the deed for the new property to sell their old one while keeping the benefit of the reduced rate. Only once this period has elapsed can a first complete assessment be made. Feedback from the field, the concrete effects of the reform and any potential windfall effects will be analysed objectively. If adjustments are needed, they will be decided based on facts, not impressions.
The same logic applies to inheritance tax. The details of the reform planned for 2028 can also be reviewed in light of the budgetary trajectory. However, its objective remains fully valid.
Even today, Wallonia applies some of the highest inheritance tax rates in Europe, reaching up to 80% in certain cases. For the Government, this taxation is excessive, even confiscatory in nature. It is only right that wealth built up over a lifetime of work should be passed on under better conditions.
That is precisely why the Government decided, at the start of the legislature, to halve inheritance tax rates from 2028. If the percentages need to be adjusted to reflect changes in public finances, the intention to reduce this tax remains fully valid. The objective remains the same: to allow the Walloons to pass on more of the fruits of a lifetime of work to their loved ones, rather than seeing it disappear in taxes.
This vision is consistent with the Government's overall approach. Putting public finances in order does not mean accumulating savings for their own sake. It is about making public action more efficient, cutting unnecessary spending and creating room for manoeuvre to gradually restore purchasing power to the Walloons.