Opposition: Transaction Tax Must Be Abolished, It Hurts Businesses (2)

Bratislava, April 1 (TASR) - The transaction tax must be abolished, as it hurts businesses and employers in Slovakia, opposition PS and SaS parties claimed on Tuesday. "We're giving the government the last chance to fix this. We're submitting an amending proposal to scrap the transaction tax as of May 1 and return the tax income collected in April back to taxpayers," stated PS chair Michal Simecka, who added that the government is driving away businesses that could help fuel Slovakia's economic growth. PS MP Darina Luscikova underlined that the state will tax every single expenditure of entrepreneurs with this type of tax, whether it be the procurement of material, the use of mobile phone or even the payment of employee salaries. The tax will be paid also by starting businesses. Luscikova warned that because of the introduction of the transaction tax, every tenth entrepreneur entertains terminating his or her business activities in Slovakia and up to half of the firms will introduce austerity cuts to their development plans, salaries and number of personnel this year. According to MP Marian Viskupic (SaS), the transaction tax will increase costs and impose additional red tape on the self-employed and firms. This can have catastrophic effects particularly for small-sized businesses, which won't be able to absorb the additional costs and will either need to slash their investments and lay off employees. Viskupic pointed out that the government expects the tax to bring about €700 million to the state budget next year. In his view, however, the real sum will be much smaller, seeing as administrative costs related with the tax are going to increase state expenditure and reduce the efficiency of the measure, while the burden is going to be foisted upon consumers via higher prices. Banks might introduce fees for banking transactions or other services as early as in the summer 2025. The upshot of it all will be that Slovakia becomes a less attractive destination for foreign investments, whereas domestic businesses will find it more challenging to acquire capital for their development. mf