SaS: Gov't Should Support Economic Growth by Introducing 'Estonian Tax'

Bratislava, 30 March (TASR) - The government should support the growth of the Slovak economy by introducing the so-called 'Estonian tax', i.e., a zero tax rate on profits reinvested in development, stated chairman of the opposition Freedom and Solidarity (SaS) party Branislav Groehling and party representatives Marian Viskupic and Ludovit Paulis at a briefing on Monday. "We want to create an environment here in which it's worth investing and Slovakia begins to grow, and where there's predictability and stability. That's why we're once again proposing to [Finance] Minister [Ladislav] Kamenicky [Smer-SD] that he should introduce the Estonian tax model. This is a 'zero-percent' tax on reinvested profits. This means that a company pays tax only when it distributes profits outside the business," stated Groehling. According to Viskupic, Slovakia can't avoid a recession. "And it isn't possible to blame it on external factors, as the governing coalition will present it. The recession is being caused by Kamenicky's chaotic consolidation - trial and error, a nonsensical fix, a fix for the nonsensical fix, and another fix for the fix, and the result is a situation that is still significantly worse than it was before that original, clearly bad decision," said Viskupic. According to Viskupic, the finance minister's claim that the 'Estonian tax' is incompatible with a flat tax stems from a misunderstanding of the principle. "This isn't about a new tax rate; it's about changing how the tax base is calculated. Quite the contrary, in fact, the Estonian model complements a simple, flat, uniform tax system perfectly. For us, for SaS, the Estonian tax is a priority," he explained. "We want to propose measures to this government for its pro-growth programme, which has been announced. The first measure would be to adjust the threshold for capital expenditures - that is, the amount at which an expenditures are considered an investment. If we adjusted it solely for inflation, this threshold would need to change from €1,700 to €3,500,” added Paulis. am/df