With an aim to consolidate public finances even further, the Government plans a number of measures such as the introduction of mandatory electronic cash registers for doctors, it emerged during Question Time in Parliament on Thursday.
“Similar measures will apply also to the sector of professional, scientific and technical services as well as accommodation services. In these sectors an additional duty to attach payment receipts to required administrative documents will be ushered in”, Prime Minister Robert Fico said. A withholding tax at 19 percent is to be introduced for pharmaceutical companies from payments provided to doctors. “For instance, in income from pharmaceutical companies, a significant incongruence was detected between the official figures published by these companies and tax returns made by individual doctors”, claimed Fico. VAT tax will stay at 20 percent, whereas the Government contemplates the introduction of a minimum tax on real estate – depending on location. "By strengthening property taxes, more scope can be created for the reduction of those taxes with a negative influence on the economic growth”, said Fico. According to the Prime Minister, consolidation measures were necessary in 2013. “However, if we had to carry out a number of painful measures in 2013 as part of the consolidation process – which in various ways affected the life of businessmen and people – now we find ourselves in the situation when a number of consolidation measures are beneficial and favourable to them”, he claimed.
