The new tax on financial transactions that the European Union plans to introduce might reduce the pensions of over 1 million of pension savers by tens of percent annually, the Hospodárske noviny daily wrote in its Tuesday, May 7 issue.
The EU plans to tax, in addition to already taxed deals and transactions, the transactions with bonds and shares through which managers of pensions appreciate people's savings. Thus, if people saving for their future pensions in the so-called second and third pension pillar (i.e. outside the state Sociálna poisťovňa social insurer) earn about two percent annually, these gains will be reduced by the new tax. Head of the Associaiton of Pension-administering Companies, Stanislav Žofčák, told the daily that the appreciation in the second pillar will be lower. NextFinance’s analyst Jiří Cihlář opined that people will probably lose interest in private pension savings.
Several experts agreed, as quoted by the SITA newswire, that any positive effects of the tax will be minimal, at least in Slovakia, which has no serious reason for introducing such a tax. The official reason for implementing the tax is to share the costs of the current economic crisis.
(Source: Hospodárske noviny, SITA)
Compiled by Zuzana Vilikovská from press reports
The Slovak Spectator cannot vouch for the accuracy of the information presented in its Flash News postings.
