The Civic Conservative Party (OKS), four members of which made it into Parliament on the Most-Híd party’s slate in June, does not agree with the planned changes to the tax and deductions system announced by Labour Minister Jozef Mihál, OKS chairman Peter Zajac told the TASR newswire on Tuesday, August 24. According to Zajac, OKS would rather see reductions in public spending instead.
“The tax and deductions system should be simplified and exemptions abolished as part of tax and deduction reform, not as part of measures aimed at increasing the incomes of public budgets, and shouldn’t lead to an increase in the overall tax and deductions burden,” said Zajac. Changes in the system that will lead to a partial increase in the tax and deductions burden should be offset by a reduction in rates and by making certain kinds of insurance voluntary, such as sickness and unemployment insurance, said Zajac.
OKS says it is especially unhappy about proposals to increase the maximum calculation base for paying deductions to five times the average salary, to increase the base for paying deductions for small entrepreneurs, to reduce the lump-sum expenditure allowance for small entrepreneurs to 30 percent of income, and to tax incomes from the sale of real estate. “The proposed measures will be effective only in the short term; they won’t resolve problems in public finances in the long run. A higher tax and deductions burden for certain groups will come at the expense of their net incomes, economic activities, job offers, the overall employment rate and economic growth,” cautioned Zajac.
Source: TASR
Compiled by Zuzana Vilikovská from press reports
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