Roma people are often referred to as the abusers of social system who create a significant burden on public finance. As a consequence, limiting social benefits to Roma is often proposed by many as a solution for public deficits.
The “Flat Tax Era” in Slovakia came to a definite end on 1st January 2013. Corporate tax rate of 23% (highest in the whole Central and East European Countries region by the way) became valid instead of the 19% rate. This was considered to be the last nail in the flat tax coffin.
INESS released an English version of The 2014 Universe of Public Expenditures, a poster with a graphical representation of all public expenditures financed by taxes and contributions. It enables one to understand the relationships among the individual items of public administration.
Entrepreneurs in Slovakia have not the very best reputation. In media they usually appear in connection with negative matters, so that the publicity wrongly divides them just into two categories: those who stole money during the privatization and those who are stealing today by public procurement.
Being a member of the European club is sufficient for common citizen. European institutions and their processes are largely unknown to the voters and they feel no urge to show any opinion, when even the parties are largely ambivalent towards European issues.
The goal of the project is to explain that there ain’t no such thing as a free lunch provided by state and to inform general public on the costs of the public services by using this specific visual form. It uses per citizen calculation (including children and retirees), that enables better understanding of each taxpayer´s share on financing the public services.
On May 1, 2014, the ten years long ban for foreigners on buying land in Slovakia comes to an end. The EU’s philosophy is that the European citizen is at home in every member country of the Union and this entails the possibility to buy an agricultural land. Thus, Slovakia and other member states are obliged to loosen these restrictions.
Ever since the start of the financial crisis, Slovakia has been having serious problems with the sustainability of its public finances.
The conclusion is that if we stopped providing the benefits for the richer part of the society and only the poorer families were entitled to them, public expenditures could decrease by EUR 270 million a year.
A position paper on solving the Roma question compiled by the Slovak liberal party Sloboda a Solidarita (SaS), represented by Lucia Nicolson, MP
