Lithuania’s new Government has submitted to the Parliament about 50 draft laws in line with the bill on the state budget. In response to that, LFMI held a press conference where representatives from investors, business and accountants associations took place as well. Members of associations opposed the planned revolution in the country’s tax regime and called on the new Government not to make mistakes that might be deleterious.
According to LFMI, the Parliament has been flooded with about 50 draft laws, containing amendments to more than 220 articles. On top of that, as much as 106 of them were related with tax computation and payment. Overall, the new Government moved to hastily change not just the tax rates but also the tax base.
As LFMI’s President Rūta Vainienė stated, not a single circumstance – not even a crisis – could justify an additional chaos in the economy, which would ensue after such sudden changes in the regulation of most taxes were adopted. She also warned that all this legislation, drafted in a rush, might contain errors because neither government officials nor lawyers nor individuals to whom these regulations will be applied have time enough to closely examine the proposed draft laws. Ms. Vainienė also pointed out that market agents would be forced to learn how to apply the new tax rules in three or four days – such haste doesn’t do honour to the country which is striving for Western values.
LFMI proposed, first, to implement only minimal changes to the tax system that were related with the tax rates and tax breaks; second, not to institute any changes in the country’s social security system; third, not to halt or cancel the pension reform; and fourth, to adopt changes in the tax base only after publicly debating them and following regular procedures of law-making, allowing the established period of six months before any amendments come into force.
