Since the start of the year the federal authorities have had a total of 28 million euro in unpaid traffic fines docked from offenders’ wages or from cash that they were to have received as a tax rebate. The daily ‘Het Nieuwsblad reports that this is double the amount that was recovered in this way during the whole of 2022. New rules came into force at the beginning of the year making it easier for the authorities to recover unpaid traffic fines by docking them from wages or tax rebates.
28 million euro in unpaid traffic fines docked from wages and tax rebates so far this year
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Previously people that had failed to pay a traffic fine after having received several reminders had to first appear before magistrates before the Federal Justice Department could issue an “Order for Payment”. Since the start of the year this has no longer been necessary. This however doesn’t mean that you can no longer appeal against a fine if you believe that it has been issued incorrectly.
The Federal Finance Department’s Francis Adyns told VRT News that it sometimes took months or even years before magistrates had granted permission to issue an Order for Payment. Mr Adyns added that this is no longer the case and that an Order for Payment can now be issued as soon as it becomes clear that an offender is refusing to pay their fine.
The amount payable if an Order for Payment is issued is 35% higher than the original fine. Once an Order for Payment is issued the Federal Finance Department has several options to recover the money. It can have it docked from a person’s wages or from a tax rebate that they might be entitled to. In extreme case the Federal Finance Department might even enlist the help of a bailiff to recover the amount owed.
With 28 million euro having been recovered so far this year, ‘Het Nieuwsblad’ believes that by the end of the year as much as 40 million euro in unpaid traffic fines may have been recovered through Orders of Payment. If this is the case then the amount recovered in this way in 2023 would be almost three time higher than it was in 2022.