Taxes collected sunk in Slovakia by some 30 to 40 percent since the year 2004. This happened despite the various governments in office, or in spite of the low tax burden in the area of direct taxes, claims Finance Minister Peter Kažimír.
In a discussion show of RTVS the minister went on to say that the culture of paying taxes in Slovakia is a catastrophe. In Slovakia it is tolerated not to pay taxes and people don’t object to not paying against an invoice, which in the end deforms the business environment, the minister says. An MP for the Christian Democrats Ján Hudacký argues that the current tax evasion of two billion euro is caused mainly by the “big fish” and that the problem is much more complex and is linked to the whole business environment and the government’s approach to it. Finance Minister Kažimír admitted that there are problems also in the financial sector that need to be solved. There are approximately 9 thousand people working with money, for low salaries. So they are naturally exposed to various “temptations”. The UNITAS project of the ministry which is focused on unifying the collection of taxes, social, and health contributions is to be launched in mid 2015, however there will be partial new measures taken in the area of VAT at the beginning of next year.
