BRATISLAVA, August 16, (SITA) – Sole-proprietors will be given a chance to push forward changes within the planned tax and levy reform. This is the outcome of Tuesday’s meeting of representatives of sole-proprietors’ unions and associations as well as artists with Prime Minister Iveta Radicova and Finance Minister Ivan Miklos. In order for their proposals to be successful, the changes must not radically increase the reform’s costs and have to be approved by the Coalition Council.
The prime minister promised self-proprietors that the coalition would consider their proposals in spite of the fact that the Cabinet is to debate the draft reform already this Wednesday. According to the prime minister’s spokesman Rado Bato, the offer is real. “The approval process does not end with the Cabinet, there is still the parliament and individual readings,” he announced after Tuesday’s talks. He went on to say that sole-proprietors’ organizations need to present a common proposal to the government. The second condition is the aforementioned impact on the state budget, meaning that the proposal “does not significantly endanger public funds.”
The prime minister also promised representatives of self-proprietors and artists that the Cabinet would look for solutions to some technical problems identified by artists. The artists and tradesmen welcomed the prime minister’s initiative, while they add that the Cabinet could have included them in the expert decision on the planned reform much earlier. One of the biggest problems of the current wording of the tax and levy reform is reducing the monthly amount of flat-rate expenditures to EUR 200. According to Chairman of the Slovak Craft Chamber Vojtech Gottschall, they all agree on this. They have proposed that the finance minister reduce the amount gradually over four years, he added.
Artists and sole-proprietors pooled efforts in the battle against the governmental blueprint of the tax & levy reform. On Monday, representatives of the two groups sealed the Declaration on Common Steps, opposing more tax and levy hikes. By signing the declaration, Chairman of the Slovak Craft Chamber Vojtech Gottschall, President of the Slovak Craft Association Stanislav Cizmarik and President of the Slovak Association of Small Enterprises Vladimir Sirotka threw their weight behind the initiative of artists, clustered in the Slovak Coalition for Cultural Diversity, from late July. Chairman of the Coalition’s Board Pavol Kral and leader of the Civic Conservative Party (OKS), Peter Zajac, also added their signatures. The OKS inspired the artists, who in late July adopted the party’s requirements regarding the reform.
The declaration will be submitted to all coalition parties. Kral, who chairs the Slovak Union of Visual Arts and the Slovak Coalition for Cultural Diversity, emphasized that the signatories did not mean to turn the matter into an opposition-versus-coalition game. The problem has been developing for years and for years has remained unresolved. It would not be fair to blame the incumbent government for everything because all previous ones have done little to settle the problem, according to Kral.
SITA