tax reforms

President Gitanas Nausėda and Parliament Speaker Viktorija Čmilytė-Nielsen doubt if the planned tax reform can be implemented in parliament’s current term of office, even though the proposal had been included in the autumn session agenda.

Higher defence spending would be agreed in a simpler way if the ruling coalition had implemented a tax reform, says MP Saulius SKvernelis, leader of opposition Democrats For Lithuania. The decision on defence funding must be taken by the current Seimas, he insists.

The opposition Social Democrats expect the ruling parties to take their proposals on board in next stages of debating the tax reform legislation, the party leader says.

Members of the opposition groups in the Seimas are requesting an expert assessment of the legal regulation of the tax reform, ELTA was told by the chair of non-attached MPs.

Lithuanian Prime Minister Saulius Skvernelis says that the government will decide on a further tax reform by the end of March and will then put forward its proposals to the ruling coalition partners and the public.

Merely 1 in 10 respondents in Lithuania believe that the government-proposed tax reforms will improve their financial situation, shows a survey conducted by RAIT pollster for BNS news agency.

Lithuanian politicians say that higher wages may stop Lithuanians from leaving their country, but businesses argue that such steps as revamping the education and tax systems and cutting back on the state bureaucracy might put emigration on a declining patch, the business daily Verslo Žinios reported...

Economist Vilius Šapoka, candidate for Lithuania's new finance minister, has so far refused to elaborate on the possible pension and tax reform, saying that all changes would need to be analyzed.

Saulius Skvernelis, candidate for Lithuania's new prime minister, says that no major tax reforms are planned for the nearest future, however, does not rule out revision of taxes linked with employment income, including the residents' income tax and social insurance fees.