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25. 08. 09. - 09:00

Croatian income tax is the highest in the world

Croatian Times

Croatia has become a world-record holder in terms of income tax after adoption of the new crisis tax on pensions and income.

KPMG International, a global network of professional-services firms providing audit, tax and advisory services in 145 countries around the world, conducted an international 2009 Individual Income Tax and Social Security Rate Survey of personal tax and social-security rates in 86 countries using data from 2003-2009.

According to the KPMG Instudy, the highest personal income taxes in the world are still paid by the citizens of the European Union.

When taking both personal income-tax and social-security rates into account for employees earning 100,000 US dollars, the countries with the highest rates were Slovenia (54.9 percent), Croatia (53.5 percent) and Hungary (48.1 percent).

For employees earning 300,000 US dollars, the countries with the highest rates were Slovenia (60.4 percent), Denmark (57.1 percent) and Croatia (54.5 percent).

The research, however, was concluded before 1 August, and the Croatian government earlier this month introduced a new crisis tax of two percent of all pensions and other incomes higher than 3,000 kunas or 409 Euros a month and four per cent of all incomes higher than 6,000 kunas or 819 Euros a month.

Taking the new crisis tax into consideration, Croatia has a higher rate than Slovenia and has taken over first place when it comes to income-tax rates.

Croatian economic experts have been warning for years that such high income taxes have been stopping numerous foreign companies from opening offices in Croatia.

On the other hand, according to the survey, the top average personal income-tax rate dropped 0.3 of a percentage point worldwide to 28.9 in 2009 percent from 29.2 percent in 2008.

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