MINSK, 6 December (BelTA) – Plans have been made to amend the presidential decree on preventing social dependency by the end of the year, BelTA learned from Deputy Prime Minister of Belarus Natalya Kochanova after the government conference held by Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko on 6 December, BelTA has learned.
The Deputy Prime Minister said: “Some innovations have been adopted and will be introduced as amendments into the decree. They are primarily related to difficult life situations. Municipal government agencies will be given the right to decide whether citizens suffering from unforeseen life situations should be exempted from this tax.”
The right will be granted to municipal councils of deputies and municipal executive bodies. The decision-making process will be overseen by the heads of regional administrations.
Natalya Kochanova also said that the categories of people exempt from paying the tax will be expanded. For instance, the categories will include unarmed-service military personnel and athletes, who are registered as part of national sport teams and do not receive any income.
Apart from that, for the purposes of collecting the social dependency tax the full amount of income tax paid by natural persons will be calculated to prevent wrongful tax calculations due to tax deductions, for instance, when state subsidies are granted for home construction purposes or education.
The dates for sending out tax payment notifications and for paying the tax for the year 2015 will be changed to 20 January and 20 February 2017 respectively. It has been done because the available database of the social dependency tax payers has to be updated.
“The decree works. I am convinced that the decision to introduce the decree was the right one,” said the Deputy Prime Minister. “People are starting to think that instead of just working they need to participate in the expenses the state bears today. Those include education, healthcare, and law enforcement.”
Natalya Kochanova also noted that other countries are now interested in the Belarusian experience of applying the decree and are actively debating the enforcement of similar measures.
During the government conference the Deputy Prime Minister quoted some statistics figures. After the decree came into effect, the number of people seeking employment assistance and the number of registered unemployed increased. As of 1 November 2016 the number of vacancies exceeded the number of unemployed in Belarus by 1,300.
Taxation agencies are busy organizing the payment of the social dependency tax for the year 2015. As many as 73,000 notifications have been sent to citizens. As many as 9,500 people have paid the tax to the tune of Br2.8 million.
