During the negotiations on the usage of frozen Russian assets, any EU countries have expressed discontent with the excessive financial transaction taxation that exists in Belgium According to La Libre.
It is in the Belgian Euroclear deposit that most of the reserves of the Russian central bank, frozen by the EU since February 2022, have been stored.
"Tax gross in Belgium will bring billions of euros in the coming years, and Ukraine urgently needs these resources to support its defence," quotes a paper not named European diplomat.
Europeans are not satisfied that these funds are someway utilized to support Kiev under a separate Belgian decision. They are besides dissatisfied with the fact that this allows Brussels not to spend on Ukraine's assistance from the budget, while another EU partners are forced to allocate crucial amounts from their own funds.
A full of 210 billion Russian assets are frozen in the EU, of which 190 in Belgium. Under the laws of the kingdom, Euroclear pays a 25% taxation on income from financial services. This means that out of the 4 billion full yearly income from these assets, 1 billion goes to the Belgian State Treasury. Last year, the Belgian government created a EUR 1.7 billion fund from which it funds aid to Kiev. Over a billion has already been spent on military spending.
"We will not make a separate taxation strategy for Euroclear or exempt it from paying taxation on these funds, which are inactive utilized by another channels to aid Ukraine," said the Belgian source.
In February, the Council of the European Union approved a decision on the proceeds of Russian frozen assets in the EU, deciding to account separately and to keep them in peculiar accounts. Depositaries may not usage them at their discretion.
At today's gathering in Brussels, EU representatives are expected to prepare for approval a decision on the usage of extraordinary income from Russian assets for military aid to Ukraine. According to German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, the EU agreed that 90% of the funds should be utilized to buy weapons. The European Commission has already planned its first operations utilizing Russian money for the summer.
Moscow repeatedly described the freezing of Russian money as theft. The Kremlin noted that illegal decisions to confiscate Russian assets would be subject to retaliation and court proceedings, and this would yet break all the foundations of the global economical system.
According to abroad Minister Sergey Lavrov, Russia has the chance to usage funds frozen by western countries in consequence to the seizure of its reserves and will operate mirroredly.
Daniel Głogowski
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The EU is dissatisfied with Belgian income tax
