LinkedIn·Monday, 10 August 2026·16d ago

Up to 60% of taxes About 70% chance of making 0€ Shouldn’t we change that?! When you want to attract talent. Talent with experience. Talent…

Nicolas Debray

Board Director | Advisor | Business Angel Investor | Entrepreneur | ex-Google

Up to 60% of taxes About 70% chance of making 0€ Shouldn’t we change that?! When you want to attract talent. Talent with experience. Talent that can help bring a startup to a scale up. Transform a very small project to a fast growing company. When you want to create growth, jobs, economic activity but you’re tight on cash, how do you offer attractive packages to experienced talent? When you believe you can disrupt an industry, generate value but you’re not known yet, how do you compete with well-known, established companies? When you build a company, you know you’re not going to do it alone. You need a Team but how do you assemble an A-Team with peanuts? Won’t you get only monkeys? Stock options are an easy tool for startups to open and share their capital with their key employees. It’s a great tool to align all the interests in the long term. It's not a quick hack. It’s not a spot bonus nor a yearly bonus. It's the potential fruit of a multi-year labor. Often more than 5 years long. Stock Options could be an easy tool for startups to offer attractive packages and allow them to compete for the best experienced talents. Unfortunately, in Belgium, Stock Options are not yet what they should be. Taxation is a clear road blocker. Why take the risk of paying taxes upfront for nothing (70% chance), or giving up 60% of your earnings in taxes? In the end, when someone takes risk and dares trying to create incremental value, shouldn’t that person get a fair reward? What do you think?

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