Economy

\"Digital services of the European Union member states must be made available to all citizens of the EU\" says the Minister of Entrepreneurship and IT Andres Sutt (Reform). Sutt made his comments at a time when the Union has rolled out a timetable for greater and more integrated pan-EU digital services, including digital wallets.

The Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications for Estonia, wants to analyze the existing use of e-receipts and to propose a new service to be introduced by 2025. \"Although e-receipt has been available as a service in Estonia for a long time, it is still used relatively little. Larger stores offer the possibility of a digital receipt already now, but more often it\'s still paperwork that we can see today. (...)\" said Andres Sutt, the Estonian minister.

So far, the COVID-19 pandemic has had little effect on the German housing market. It has left barely a mark on real estate prices or rentals. But the pandemic is not over yet, and even if it was: the past months have triggered some developments that will transform our working world and are likely to have a considerable impact on the housing market in the long term.

Cryptocurrencies are here to stay. As we find ourselves in the digital transformation, accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic, the topic of cryptocurrencies no longer should focus on their stereotypes, or if they are a worthwhile investment but rather on how we can educate and integrate cryptocurrencies into our everyday lives.

The Lithuanian Free Market Institute (LFMI) announces the celebration of Tax Freedom Day on Tuesday in Lithuania. The fact that it is celebrated almost three weeks later than last year shows increased government spending.

Lithuania ranks sixth in the Global Tax Competitiveness Index but it has the least attractive corporate tax regime in the Baltic region. It taxes retained and reinvested profits and applies a personal income tax when dividends are paid out. The effective combined tax rate stands at 27.7%. Estonia and Latvia tax only redistributed profits, at 20%.

After thirty years of independence, today Estonia has a very high government integrity, full respect and guarantee of property rights, a fair tax burden and government spending, high trade investment, and considerable financial freedom. Not bad for a country that has been under State Socialism for almost half a century.

The Slovak Minister of Finance claims a tax and contribution burden on self-employed people should be increased in order to be “fair“ in comparison to employees. Why can’t we put a sign of equality between these two statuses? Why doesn’t the term “fair“ make sense?

Some respected economists identified the issue of consolidation in public budget already in 2022 as a third-order problem. From an analytical point of view, he is, of course, right. A one-year deficit of 10% of GDP is nothing compared to a permanent two to five per cent deficit in the pension system with a declining workforce.

Sci-fi? Such an idea has no unrealistic basis. This biological nature of members of different cultures related to the ability to prosper is the same. One of the practical examples is the USA, which cannot refer to the race or the religion as a factor of its prosperity.