The Civic Conservative Party (OKS) will not support the government’s payroll-tax reform in a parliamentary vote because the measures will harm broad social groups in Slovakia, OKS party chairman Peter Zajac said at a press conference on Tuesday, April 26.
"We don't even know at the moment in what form and when the reform will come to parliament. If it is a single law with a general concept aimed at simplifying the system we won't have any problems with it," said Zajac, as quoted by the TASR newswire. His party’s four MPs got into parliament on the party list of Most-Híd. OKS thinks that the reforms should be carried out in two phases: making the system more simple and then dealing with the specific parameters of individual levies (or payroll deductions).
According to the four MPs, the current proposed reform isn't in accord with the visions of the coalition parties presented in the past. "The reform isn't fiscally neutral. There are no figures that would support the finance ministry's theory that a mass transfer from full-time employment to self-employment and special agreements is taking place," added Zajac. According to him, the proposal is a positive alternative to the current situation, but it still affects a wide group of people. "The proposal isn't fair or reforming. If we want to speak about reform, it can only be reform when the resulting state equates to an improvement over the current situation," he said.
Finance Minister Ivan Mikloš (Slovak Democratic and Christian Union (SDKÚ)) said that he is ready for extensive negotiations with OKS about the payroll-tax reform. "I'm saying very seriously that the system is deformed and we want to remove these deformities, it isn't possible to do it in a way that won't affect anybody," he stressed. Mikloš said he wants critics of the tax-levy (or payroll deductions) reform to come forward with specific proposals. "If they come up with a proposal that will resolve the current problems, simplify the current system… and it won't affect anybody, I'll be the first one to say: 'maybe we haven't considered this properly, we haven't found a solution that others have found' ... I'm open to changes and modifications," the minister added.
Source: TASR
Compiled by Zuzana Vilikovská from press reports
The Slovak Spectator cannot vouch for the accuracy of the information presented in its Flash News postings.
