Prague, June 29 (CTK) – The Czech government ANO wants to abolish super gross wage for people with a monthly income of up to 113,000 crowns and introduce a 19-percent tax rate among its programme priorities for the October general election that its chairman Andrej Babis presented today.
ANO also proposes a lower VAT of 10 percent on basic foodstuffs. It would like to preserve the current tax rates for legal entities and rejects the introduction of a sector tax for banks.
ANO also proposes some reliefs from the electronic sales registration (EET).
In the case of a super gross wage, the current income tax rate for people with 113,000 crowns a month is 20.1 percent and for those with a higher income, it is 23.35 percent.
ANO would like to lower the tax rate by 1.1 percentage point for people who do not pay a solidarity surcharge now.
ANO also proposes the introduction of flat expense write-offs for all employees that would mean a 500-crown lower insurance a month.
ANO wants to cut the 15-percent VAT to 10 percent on basic foodstuffs, water supplies and sewage collection fees and cut flowers. The VAT rate for catering services and non-alcoholic beverages in restaurants along with services in the care of the elderly and disabled and cleaning should be decreased in the same way.
ANO also plans to lower the 21-percent VAT to 10 percent on draught beer, hairdressing and shoe and bicycle repairs.
Babis said unlike the proposals by other parties, ANO would like to reflect the impact of its tax changes on the state budget in its programme.
“We do not want to promise things that are irresponsible as far as the budget is concerned. We must keep the budget in a reasonable condition,” he said .
The tax modifications proposed by ANO are to cause the loss of 45 billion crowns in the state budget revenues.
However, Babis, former finance minister, is convinced that this could be compensated by income from the VAT ledger statements. A higher consumption will also contribute to a rise in the budget revenues since people will have more money left thanks to the planned tax reduction, Babis said.
ANO is in general striving for changing tax rates only rarely, while it always wants to give firms and individuals enough time to prepare for the change before the respective law takes effect, he added.
“We push for a stable and predictable tax environment,” he said.
His movement also proposes EET reliefs.
The duty to join EET would not apply to individuals with a lump-sum tax and income of up to 500,000 crowns a year, school cafeterias and child hobby clubs, e-shops and the sale of Christmas carps.
ANO also plans to abolish duty to display a note on EET in establishments and enable people to choose between a paper and electronic receipt.
Moreover, public benevolent associations with a turnover of up to one million crowns a year that organise events outside its regular seat would be exempted from EET as well.
Besides, ANO wants to simplify tax return forms and strengthen the powers of the financial authority.
“The tax authority will fill in the forms itself once, while the users will just check them,” Babis said.
ANO is a clear favourite of the October 20-21 general election. The latest opinion polls show that it would gain some 30 percent of the vote.
($1=23.141 crowns)
