May 15th, 2009

Parliament to get 2010 tax bill by end of Month

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Hungary’s government plans to submit to parliament the 2010 tax bill at the end of May and a session devoted to the bill is expected to be held before June 29, Speaker of Parliament Katalin Szili said on Thursday.

The government’s tax plans for 2010 serve to restore Hungary’s fiscal balance in the short run while fostering job creation and economic growth in the medium term, Finance Minister Peter Oszko said earlier.

The income ceiling for the lower 18 percent personal income tax rate will be raised from 1.9 million to 5 million forints next year, equivalent to putting up to six weeks’ wages in the pockets of earners, Oszko said.

The raising of the income ceiling to 1.9 million forints in the second half of 2009 will already benefit some 1.6 million people, Oszko said. Tax on labour will be reduced by five percentage points on monthly wages of up to 143,000 forints (EUR 505).

A new property tax will partially offset the cuts, Oszko said.

According to the latest drafts, the property tax would range from 0.2 to 1 percent, depending on the property’s value, starting at 2 million forints. A compensation scheme will be available for pensioners and low-income home owners.

In 2010, the government will apply the 5 percentage-point cut in tax on labour to all wages, Oszko said.

Parliament approved a VAT hike to 25 percent and the first step of cuts to tax on labour for 2009 earlier this week, as part of Prime Minister Gordon Bajnai’s immediate crisis control measures.

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  1. JD says:
    May 15, 2009 at 9:16 am

    “The raising of the income ceiling to 1.9 million forints in the second half of 2009 will already benefit some 1.6 million people, Oszko said.”

    “A new property tax will partially offset the cuts, Oszko said.”

    How kind of this jerk with the memory of a goldfish to tell us our tax burden. The fact that the 5% increase in VAT will affect all 10 million people to a far worse degree seems to slip his mind.

    Unfortunately, call me a pessimist, but this government and their alternatives have so little credibility, that any tax bill passed now for 2010 will no doubt be recinded when the time comes due to some new “crisis”.