9. Annexes

9.1. The Dutch Bill d.d. 1989 with Translation into English

9.2. The Dutch Bill as modified d.d. 1992 with Translation into English

9.3. The American Bill d.d. 1991

9.4. The Belgian Bill d.d. 1986 with Translation into English

Bill of March 20 1986 Belgian Senate.
Article 1

In virtue of this act are established:

  1. a Peace Tax Fund, hereafter called the Fund;
  2. a Belgian Institute for Peace and Development projects, hereafter called the Institute.
Article 2

The heading of Part VI, chapter I, section 5 of the Code of the income taxes is changed as follows: Section 5, Transfers to the Peace Tax Fund.

Article 3

Article 177 of the Code of the income taxes abolished by the Act of July 15 1966 is reestablished in the following reading:

Article 177. - Every taxpayer can transfer a portion of his income tax debt to the Peace Tax Fund during the year of income. This transfer is considered as a payment in advance with regard to the professional revenue tax.

Article 4

Article 178 of the same Code, abolished by the same act, is reestablished in the following reading:

Article 178. - The amount of this transfer to the Peace Tax Fund is restricted however to at most five percent of the tax debt of physical persons with regard to the year of the assessment during which that transfer is made.

Article 5

Article 179 of the same Code, abolished by the same Act, is reestablished in the following reading:

Article 179. - For the application of the articles 89, 91bis and 129 the transfers to the Peace Tax Fund are considered as equal to payments in advance.

Article 6

The heading of Part VI, Chapter II, section 6 of the Same Code is reestablished as following:

Section 6. - Transfer to the Peace Tax Fund.

Article 7

Article 202 of the same Code, abolished by the Act of June 25 1973 is reestablished in the following reading:

Article 202. - Before the clearance of any other payment in advance the amount of the transfer to the Peace Fund mentioned in article 177 is subtracted from the tax. Repayment is not possible.

Article 8

The Fund is a public institute of category A, under the rule of the Act of March 16 1954 concerning the control over some public institutes and of the Act of June 28 1963 to change and supply the Accountability Acts.

The Minister of Finance is charged with the supervision over this Fund.

The Fund does not have an own infrastructure, nor an own administration.

The administration will be carried out by the services of the Minister of Finance and for his account.

Article 9

The institute is a public institute, of category B, under the rule of the Act of March 16 1954 concerning the control over some public institutes and of the Act of June 28 1963 to change and supply the Accountability Acts.

The Prime Minister is charged with the supervision over the Institute.

Article 10

The institute receives all the money of the Fund within two months after the registration.

Article 11

The task of the institute is:

The research and financing of projects of transarmament, that is the nonviolent defence, the conversion from the armament industry, the peace education and in general projects for disarmament and peace in the world.

Article 12

The institute is under the direction of a General Council.

The General Council consists of a Dutch speaking section and a French speaking section of sixteen members each.

The French speaking section consists of:

  • 8 members of the Belgian Parliament from the French speaking linguistic group, according to article 32 bis of the Constitution and article 1, paragraph 2 of the Act of July 3 1971.

    Those members are appointed by the Chamber and the Senate together, so that all parties are represented.

  • 4 members from one or more organisations for development aid on the recommendation of the Centre National de Coopération et de Développement (National Center for Cooperation and Development).
  • 4 members from one or more organisations for peace work, on the recommendation of Concertation, Paix et Développement (Cooperation, Peace and Development).

The Dutch speaking section consists of:

  • 8 members of the Belgian Parliament from the Dutch speaking linguistic group, according to article 32 bis of the Constitution and article 1, paragraph 2 of the Act of July 3 1971.

    Those members are appointed by the Chamber and the Senate together, so that all parties are represented.

  • 4 members from one or more organisations for development aid on the recommendation of the Nationaal Centrum voor Ontwikkelings-samenwerking (National Center for Developmentcooperation).
  • 4 members from one or more organisations for peace work on the recommendation of the Overlegcentrum voor de Vrede (Center for Peace Consultation).

The representatives from the organisations are appointed by the King

The term of office of the members of the parliament is the term of their parliamentary mandate, the term of office of the others is four years.

The members of the General Council may not fulfil more than two additional terms.

Article 13

The members of the General Council choose from its members a chairperson for a term of two years, successively from the Dutch speaking and the French speaking members.

Article 14

The General Council publishes each year in the three languages of the country a detailed report about the activities of the institute and its financial management.

That report is communicated to the legislator. It is joined to the budget of the services of the Prime Minister.

The accounts of the Fund are added to the budget of the State.

Article 15

The General Council can institute one or more consultative committees with regard to projects. The members of these project committees are of Belgian or Alien citizenship and are chosen because of their expertness.

Article 16

The General Council performs its duties within the framework of this Act in full independence.

It decides, taking into consideration the available resources and in conformity with the regulations of this act, in full independence about the choice of the projects and fixes the personnel formation.

9.5 The Belgian Bill d.d. 1995 with Translation into English

Bill of March 17 1995 Belgian Senate
Article 1

The conscientious objection against military destination of tax money is recognised. A Peace Tax Fund is established, called hereafter the Fund, relating to the budget of the Minister of the Interior.

The public fund is fed exclusively by the transfers, mentioned in the articles 269 bis as far as 269 quater of the Code of Income Taxes 1992.

Article 2

In the Code of the Income Taxes 1992 in part VI, Chapter I, a section III bis is inserted with the heading Peace Tax Fund, which consists of the articles 269 bis as far as 269 quater, reading:

Article 269 bis. - Every taxpayer can give notice of his conscientious objection to the military destination of his tax money on the income tax return with respect to the last year, and can give an explanation in an annex.

Article 269 ter. - The collector of the direct taxes transfers a portion of the amount of the tax assessment to the Peace Tax Fund, as soon as the assessment has become final.

Article 269 quater. - The portion of the assessment destined for the Peace Fund is equal to a percentage, to be calculated each year, of the tax debt of the physical persons related to the assessment year connected with the previous income year. The Audit Court calculates each year the percentage which in the last budget year is spent for military defence. This percentage is got by dividing the amount of the military defence expenditure in the previous budget year, as communicated by the Belgian Government to NATO by the total tax revenue of that year.

Article 3

The Fund is a public institute, category B, under the rule of the act of March 16 1954, concerning the control over some public institutes and of the Act of June 28 1963 to change and supply the Accountability Acts, modified by the Act of June 28 1989.

The Minister of the Interior is in charge with the supervision over the Fund.

Article 4

The task of the Fund is the financing of study and education projects with regard to disarmament, nonviolent conflict resolution, nonmilitary defence, conversion from the armament industry, peace education and furtherance of the human rights in the world.

Article 5

The Fund is under the direction of a General Council.

The General Council consists of sixteen Dutch speaking and sixteen French speaking members.

The Dutch speaking members are:

  • four senators and four members of the Chamber of Representatives.
  • four members presented by the most representative Dutch speaking nongovernmental peace organisations.
  • four members presented by the most representative Dutch speaking nongovernmental organisations for development cooperation.

The French speaking members are:

  • four senators and four members of the Chamber of Representatives.
  • four members presented by the most representative French speaking nongovernmental peace organisations.
  • four members presented by the most representative French speaking nongovernmental organisations for development cooperation.

The members of parliament are respectively appointed by the Chamber of Representatives and the Senate. Their term of office is equal to their parliamentary mandate.

The other members are appointed by the King, their term of office is four years.

A member of the General Council may not fulfil more than two additional terms.

Article 6

The members of the General Council choose from its members a chairperson for a term of two years successively from the Dutch speaking and the French speaking members.

Article 7

The General Council publishes each year a circumstantial report about its activities and the financial management of the Fund. The report is communicated to the Chamber of Representatives and to the Senate. It is joined to the budget of the Department of the Minister of the Interior.

Article 8

The General Council can institute one or more consultative committees with regard to projects. The members of the project committees are chosen because of their expertness.

Article 9

The General Council decides, taking into account the available resources and in conformity with the regulation of this act, in full independence about the choice of the projects and about the personnel formation of the Fund.

Article 10

The King decides the date on which this act will take effect.

9.6. The British Bill d.d. 1986

9.7. The German Bill d.d.. 1986 with Translation into English

Bill d.d. April 29 1986 Bundestag Drucksache 10/5420

The Bundestag has with the approval of the Bundesrat passed into law the following bill:

Article 1
  1. To further peace and disarmament a Peace Fund is established, as a special fund without legal authority, of the federation with own management and accountability.
  2. A Bundestag committee has the control over the expenditure of the resources of the Peace Fund.
Article 2

The tasks of the Peace Fund are to further the following targets and projects and to give these financial support:

  1. National and international institutions in the domain of world peace and peaceful conflict resolution;
  2. Research to nonmilitary and nonviolent solutions of international conflicts.
  3. International conferences to promote disarmament and peace and international exchange of experiences and opinions in this domain;
  4. National and international institutions in the domain of development aid policy;
  5. Amelioration of the health, welfare and education systems and economic structures in developing countries;
  6. Aid programs for the civil population in countries damaged by war and catastrophes and for refugees and expelled people;
  7. Programs for the conversion of enterprises and the retraining of personnel in case of conversion from military to civil production;
  8. Programs for peace education and development aid policy;
  9. Information of the public about the activities of the Peace Fund.
Article 3
  1. The budget of the Peace Fund have to be fixed by the federal legislator each year.
  2. The amount of the resources of the Fund which have to be fixed in the budget each year, consists of the product of the fixed income and salary tax contributions in the last year of those taxpayers who have given the statement according to article 4.
Article 4
  1. Unlimited income taxpayers may request that their income or salary tax money fixed according to the regulations of the Income Tax Act has to be transferred to the Peace Fund.
  2. The request has to be made for each tax year and has to be introduced together with the tax return or the clearance request with respect to the salary tax. The taxpayer has to state in the request that he/she on grounds of conscience rejects a war in any form and the preparation of a war and that he/she with appeal to article 4 of the Constitution is not prepared to pay taxes for armament expenditure.
Article 5
  1. The resources of the Fund have to be spent in favour of the in article 2 mentioned tasks of the Peace Fund directly in the percentage equivalent to the fraction of the amount of the defence expenditure of the federation divided by the amount of the total expenditure of the federation.
  2. The percentage according to paragraph 1 has to be fixed each year in the budget of the federation.
  3. The resources which exceed the percentage according to paragraph 1 have to be made available for other federal expenditure mentioned in the budget. These resources may not be spent for armament and defence activities.
Article 6

According to article 13 paragraph 1 of the Third Transfer of Competences Act this act is also in force in the Land Berlin.

Article 7

The act will be in force the day after its publication.

Bonn, April 29 1986

9.8. The German Bill d.d. 1990 with Translation into English

9.9. The Australian Bill d.d. 1989

Explanatory Memo

9.10 The Italian Bill d.d. 1989 - Translation into English

Copyright and responsibility Erik Th.Hummels March 1996

Berkenlaan 14, 3707 BC Zeist, The Netherlands

tel.+31.30.6922057 and +31.2511224

telefax +31.30.2541786 internet: ehummels@xs4all.nl

8 Conclusion
The Dutch Peace Tax Bill and Similar Bills Elsewhere