Tax Cuts In Greece’s First Balanced Budget In Decades
Greece’s 2015 Budget, released on October 6, 2014, includes reductions to the solidarity tax on earners and a 30 percent cut on the tax on heating oil, as part of the Government’s pledge to begin to unwind the austerity measures of recent years.
Finance Minister Gikas Hardouvelis’s budget would cut the “solidarity tax” paid by those on incomes over EUR12,000 (USD15,178) and would reduce social security contributions to support employment levels.
The measures are the first step towards a commitment made by Greece’s Prime Minister, Antonis Samaras, to cut taxes. In July, he said that taxes would be slashed “everywhere” over the next seven years, and that the tax system would become “more human” when dealing with taxpayers who struggle to pay.
With Greece’s economy expected to strongly recover next year, with growth forecast to be 2.9 percent of gross domestic product, the Government anticipates that 2015 will be the first year that Greece posts a largely balanced budget, with a nominal budget deficit of 0.2 percent. Excluding debt repayments, Greece would have posted a surplus of about three percent – a figure consistent with the targets under its bailout.
Although its plans have yet to be endorsed by the troika of lenders, the Government has hailed the Budget as a landmark turn in fortunes for Greece and its taxpayers, after five years of austerity and persistent budget deficits over the past four decades.
Source: taxnews- Tax Cuts In Greece’s First Balanced Budget In Decades
