taxation

Energy Taxation Directive (ETD) claims to improve the Single Market, promote energy efficiency, and contribute to jobs and growth. In reality, it fails to achieve these objectives. The research by LFMI suggests that in 2012 the grey market for fuel comprised nearly 20 percent of the market for transportation fuel.

TEP required member states to liberalize the power markets while RED set incentives to pick-up champions. The call for opinion on the ETD intends, presumably, to boost EU common market, while the RED and other policies are fragmenting it.

May 23, 2018 – the symbolic Tax Freedom Day, marking the day when an average taxpayer has paid all the dues to the government and begins to work for himself, falls in Lithuania. This year the Tax Freedom Day comes on the same day as in the last year, according to the Lithuanian Free Market Institute (LFMI).

Paying the advanced tax in Slovakia is a bureaucratic burden, since an entrepreneur has to take care of the regular payments. But there is a bigger problem. An entrepreneur has to pay the advanced tax from her/his current income – but the payment size is set according to her/his last year’s tax.

On December 7, 2017, the Ukrainian Parliament had the day of Budget-2018. During one day, the Verkhovna Rada amended the Budget Code and Tax Code, as well as adopted the State Budget Law for 2018. The decisions were taken in a very non-transparent way with changes approved from the voice.

With several policy proposals on introducing a progressive taxation model put on the table, the upcoming parliamentary session in Lithuania is sure to become a heavily debated one. In fact, every tenth taxpayer is threatened with higher tax burden as personal income tax might increase from a flat 15%up to 20%.

Croatia is currently 61% economically free. There is no country with more than 90%. Therefore, Croatia\'s competitive gap is much more than 39% deficit in economic freedom. Croatia\'s challenge is to compete with much better countries of Central Eastern Europe.

In 2007-2008, a single rate for income and profit tax of 10% (or “flat rate”) was introduced in Bulgaria. It is now apparent that this was only the last stage of a long-lasting tax reform which has been going on without interruption under numerous and fundamentally different governments.

The system of concealing the actual amount of employee contributions (employers\' contributions) and the transfer of the obligation to tax returns and the calculation of contributions and taxes to the employer, made the employees fiscally illiterate.

Will the United Kingdom, now on the verge of a significant systemic shift, really be better off without the EU? Richard Teather, Senior Lecturer in Taxation at Bournemouth University and a strong supporter of Brexit, comments on the recent phenomena in a gripping interview for Olga Łabendowicz and the Liberté! magazine.