Gyurcsany says Unity plans around 30pc tax on high incomes

Budapest, January 30 (MTI) – The left-wing opposition parties in the Unity alliance agree that monthly incomes above 400-500,000 forints (EUR 1,300-1,600) will be subject to a personal income tax of around 30 percent if they win the April election, DK leader Ferenc Gyurcsany said on Thursday.

Gyurcsany told commercial station TV2 that introducing a second personal income tax bracket could generate around 100-150 billion forints in revenues which could be used to discontinue taxes that hinder investment and lending, plus there would be money left for social-welfare purposes.

He noted that even Szazadveg, a think tank close to the government, said that only the wealthiest 25 percent make use of the 400 billion forints left in people’s pockets thanks to the introduction of flat-rate tax.

Gyurcsany told a conference organised by his party on Wednesday that the government’s economic policy is unsustainable, the past three years were characterised by austerity measures and, contrary to the government propaganda, Hungary is performing worse and not better.

The inflation forecast, the base rate and the current monetary policy are not tenable either, Gyurcsany said. The 2014 budget deficit will be 3.5 percent as against the government’s projected 2.9 percent, he added.

Gyurcsany attributed low inflation merely to “artificially suppressed and unsustainable” energy prices. Among the austerity measures introduced in the past three years, he cited cutting universities’ budgets from 200 billion forints in 2010 to 134 billion forints and the lowering of wages for public workers.

Gyurcsany said even if the left-wing Unity wins the spring election, there will be no more money available in the short term, so people should not be promised more money, and “fiscal adjustments will certainly be needed.”

“Still, life will be better in certain respect, for instance the country will be more free,” Gyurcsany said.

Photo: MTI

Source: http://hungarymatter.hu/