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Fellow Belgians,

I would like to present you with the following proposal I have put forth in Congress today:


"Dear Congress,

I would like to discuss with you our current tax model and how I think we can improve it.

This is how our current taxes look like at the moment:

Product: Income Tax - Import Tax - VAT

Foo😛 6% - 35% - 4%
Moving Tickets: 10% - 20% - 3%
House: 10% - 5% - 3%
Hospital: 10% - 1% - 1%
Defense System: 10% - 1% - 1%
Rifle: 10% - 20% - 3%
Tank: 10% - 20% - 3%
Artillery: 10% - 20% - 3%
Air Unit: 10% - 20% - 3%
Grain: 10% - 2%
Oil: 10% - 2%
Titanium: 10% - 2%
Stone: 10% - 2%
Iron: 10% - 2%

Now, what I propose to do is to raise the Income Tax on all products we do not want to produce ourselves to 50%. We, as a country, do not have a single High Raw Material region, therefore we are not competitive compared to other companies in countries with High Raw Material regions. Opening Raw Material companies in Belgium is a waste of Gold and we, the Congress, should do everything in our power to discourage people from wasting their money on opening non-profitable companies in Belgium whilst they could open profitable companies abroad and simply import it here. Therefore, a 50% income tax on all Raw Materials will go a long way to help people make a safe investment for their hard earned Gold.

"OMG, you are going to kill the Harvester profession! Harvesters won't be able to work in Belgium anymore!"
Wrong. The admins have just announced they will merge all the professions into one, eliminating the harvester skill all together. This means people currently working in the Raw Material business will be able to easily switch to work in another part of the economy. This is a good thing, seeing as a lot of companies in Belgium are currently having trouble finding enough skilled and active workers, meaning the workers that will be freed from inefficient Raw Material companies will be put to good use in other, more profitable companies. This can only be a good thing for the citizens, companies and ultimately, the state.

"But those who do not bother to check whether a region has High Raw Material or not, will not check the taxes either!11!1!"
Well, if we can persuade only 1 citizen to not waste his Gold on making a RM company here, it will have all been worth it. After all, it's only a small effort for us to change the taxes, but it can mean a world of difference for a new player scrapping his hard earned Gold together to make his first company. We should do everything in our power to have new players make the right decisions, and learn from our mistakes.

The same applies to Hospitals and Defense System companies. Contrary to popular (and misguided) belief, Hospital and Defense System companies are not profitable in Belgium. In order for a Hospital or Defense System company to be profitable you need a) a Q4 or Q5 company, b) 20 high skilled workers, c) countries that will actually buy your products. Since V1, the infrastructure (HS/DS) market has traditionally been one of state-owned companies. All big countries that regularly wage war, have their own HS/DS companies. They do not rely on private investors to supply those for them. Seeing as I currently own a Q5 Hospital and Q5 Defense System company, and have owned Q1-Q3 HS/DS companies before, I think I know what I am talking about. In fact, I believe I am the only one in Belgium who has the experience in HS/DS construction to know what he is talking about. I have build and put more Q5 Hospitals and DS's in countries than most people in this game.

While in theory building and selling Q1 Hospitals to countries that are at war might seem like a good idea, it's not. I highly doubt there's a market for Q1 infrastructure products, and if there is, it will be already state-owned. Let us guide our citizens to investing in companies that might actually be somewhat profitable, like Food or Moving Tickets. Therefore, I will be proposing a 50% Income Tax on Hospital and Defense Systems as well.


Next would be the Import Taxes. Everyone who believes high Import Taxes are good for our economy, knows nothing about the economy in this game. Sure, it might work in your roleplay communist little world, or it might apply for big countries with thousands of citizens and all the raw materials to produce everything they need, but this isn't Brazil or anything. Heck, even countries like Russia, the USA, Poland, Hungary, etc... all have very low Import Taxes. The reason for this is that stuff > Gold, which means that the more stuff we have on our market, the better. Having a lot of stuff on our market, beats having a slightly higher Gold income from very high Import Taxes. The truth of the matter is, Belgium is a small, underdeveloped, inactive country. We cannot produce everything ourselves, we need to rely on imports from abroad to sustain our economy.

Here is the new tax model as I propose it:

Foo😛 10% - 10% - 5%
Moving Tickets: 10% - 10% - 5%
House: 10% - 5% - 3%
Hospital: 50% - 1% - 1%
Defense System: 50% - 1% - 1%
Rifle: 10% - 5% - 3%
Tank: 10% - 5% - 3%
Artillery: 10% - 5% - 3%
Air Unit: 10% - 5% - 3%
Grain: 50% - 5%
Oil: 50% - 5%
Titanium: 50% - 5%
Stone: 50% - 5%
Iron: 50% - 5%


I believe this tax model will serve several purposes. First, it would protect our citizens better by discouraging them to open inefficient Raw Material or infrastructure companies in Belgium, while encouraging workers in said companies to move to another branch of the economy, which will be facilitated with the Profession change the admins announced. Second, it will encourage more imports from abroad, providing more stuff on our market at a lower price for our citizens. Third, this new tax model should provide the state with more income through increased sales and some fine tuning to the VAT/Import taxes. I have increased the imports on Raw's a bit, because frankly, we can use the extra income in case The Netherlands finally grow the balls to invade us, while a 5% import tax isn't going to scare importers away either.

I'm pretty sure my political adversaries will be in this thread very soon to try and tear this proposal to shreds. I can see the BCP claiming that there is "nothing wrong with our taxes and everything should stay the same". Let me tell you in advance, if you don't want to change things, Belgium will never move forward. Let's put aside petty party politics and silly real life ideologies, and start playing this game like it was meant to be played. "


Thank you for your attention.