Public economics

This year the Tax Freedom Day in Bulgaria comes on April 30, according to an analysis of the Institute for Market Economy (IME). 

This is the day, when the planned revenues of the state budget would be completed, if the state took everything the people earned. 

Greece has achieved more than three quarters of the fiscal adjustment it needs to make its debt sustainable, Finance Minister Yannis Stournaras told businessmen on Monday.

Solidarity tax scrapped, but public sector pay cut remains

BELGRADE -- Finance Minister Lazar Krstić said Monday that the solidarity tax will be scrapped as of July 1, but that public sector salaries will be reduced by ten percent.

The minimum wage will remain exempt, he said.

Aleksandar Vucic was elected as the new head of the Serbian government, vowing that his main goal is economic recovery and warning that austerity measures lie ahead.

 Amendments exempt students and unemployed from taxation; small firms to pay VAT after collection

By Prokopis Hatzinikolaou

A series of amendments tabled in Parliament on Friday by Finance Minister Yannis Stournaras are intended to correct the injustices of past tax bills affecting the unemployed, students and those who had particularly low incomes during 2013.

BELGRADE - Serbia's budget deficit totaled RSD 71.8 billion in the first quarter (Q1) of 2014, the Serbian Finance Ministry said in a release on Friday.

The deficit in March was RSD 38.4 billion and expenditures that month were greater than in the previous two, due to repayment of external debt, payment of interest on Eurobonds and agricultural subsidies.

BELGRADE - The reform of the public sector and tax system together with an organized battle against the gray economy are at the top of the list of 10 key reforms the business community demands from the next government, according to a survey conducted by the Serbian Association of Employers (UPS) among 1,284 small, medium and large companies in 44 cities and municipalities in Serbia.

“We revised the outlook to stable because we think that the recently concluded International Monetary Fund programme will serve as a policy anchor for fiscal consolidation and support the sustainability of Albania's high government debt,” Standard and Poor’s said in a statement.

By Costas Karkayiannis

Greece had one of the highest tax burdens on labor income last year, ranking 11th among the 34 member states of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, according to an OECD report published on Friday.

Greece is planning to announce a sale of five-year notes via banks on Wednesday, according to two people familiar with the matter, as the country that sparked Europe’s sovereign debt crisis returns from a bond-market exile.