Pripravovaná daňová reforma v Slovenskej republike podľa kritérií daňovej teórie a praxe
PREPARED TAX REFORM IN THE SLOVAK REPUBLIC ACCORDING TO THE CRITERIA OF TAX THEORY AND PRACTICE

Summary/Abstract: Tax reform is a very important step of each government because any tax change can bring about significant impacts on the economic activities and cause a lot of predictable and unpredictable reactions. Nowadays, the next tax reform in the Slovak Republic has been prepared to be introduced into a tax practice (since January 1st 2004) after 11-years running of the present tax system and many of its novelizations and amendments. A proposal of a new radical tax reform of Slovakia comes out of the assessment of the present tax system which has many weaknesses and several controversial issues. The main reasons of the new tax reform of Slovakia are: a) an increasing deficit of the State Budget of Slovakia, b) the ratio of tax burden of inhabitants and entrepreneurs, c) a low discipline of tax payments in Slovakia (increasing amount of tax non-payments), d) weaknesses in the tax system – weak using of the basic tax principles in the tax systems, low level of the tax legislation (complicacy, transparency, frequency of changes and amendments). The designers of the new tax reform of Slovakia have formed following main aims: a) more correct using and implementation of basic tax principles into the tax system (equity, neutrality, simplicity and efficiency), b) simplifying of the Slovak tax legislation and tax structure, c) a fiscal neutrality of tax reform, d) a further shift of tax burden from direct taxes into indirect taxes, e) a further shift of tax burden from income taxes into taxes on consumption and taxes on property, f) the most radical change of tax reform – introduction of a flat tax (the same tax rate of 19 per cent of income tax of inhabitants, and 19 per cent same tax rate of corporation income tax on profit and 19 per cent same tax rate of VAT). The author of this article has tried to evaluate positive and negative sides of the tax reform proposals according to the theoretical and practical criteria. Introduction of the equity principle by using a flat tax (by removing the progressive taxation of inhabitants) is questionable and demagogic because this system is highly advantageous for rich taxpayers in comparison with the previous system. If we take a new taxation of consumption into account (VAT, excise duties), the principle of equity is not absolutely fulfilled because of the regressivity of consumption taxes. The tax acts have been emended many times since 1993. The consequences of many amendments are that tax law in the Slovak republic is very complicated, the verbal amount of tax law more than doubled. A lot of exceptions in tax law caused non-understandability and non-lucidity of tax legislation. A number of amendments extended to 138 for the period from 1993 to 2002. A simplicity of taxation is connected with an efficiency. It is very important to focus on the efficiency of tax administration and on the way of tax collection....

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