Final Word from Tuesday, August 10, 2010
Even the rich will have to admit soon that the tax policies of the new Czech government are disproportionately aimed at the middle and lower classes. The Kč 100 monthly reduction in the standard income-tax deduction, the increase in the lower VAT rate, the 50% tax on construction-savings subsidies, the increase in some healthcare fees - these are all things that will be barely noticed by the upper classes. At the same time, high wage-earners will benefit from a lower cap on social-security tax and will get to keep their relatively low marginal income-tax rate. The Nečas government has never stated explicitly that it wants to incite a class war, but many of the moves it is taking give this impression. If you recall, one of the arguments against another government of Jiří Paroubek was the fear that ČSSD and the Communists would gang up on the rich. But is there a substantial difference between a class war initiated by the Left and one initiated by the Right? Either way, the impact on Czech society would be similarly destructive.[Czech Republic Petr Social Democrats]
Glossary of difficult words
marginal tax rate - the highest tax rate applied to income; the tax rate that applies to the next amount of taxable income;
to incite - to encourage or stir up (violent or unlawful behavior);
to gang up on someone - to join together, typically in order to intimidate someone.