Income distribution

Turkey will raise the monthly minimum wage by 8 percent to 1,404 Turkish liras ($397), Labor Minister Mehmet Müezzinoğlu said at a press conference on Dec. 29 in Ankara, a level that trade unions did not welcome. 

The Finance Ministry is offering those who have concealed incomes from the state - evading the payment of taxes, levies and/or charges - one last chance to come clean regarding taxable revenues or assets from previous years.

Let me explain the "first conspiracy" in the simplest terms possible. It was the precursor of the greatest conspiracy in Turkey's recent history.   

Doğan Publishing Holding, at the end of 2006, sold 25 percent of Doğan TV's shares to Germany's Axel Springer for 375 million euros (nearly $500 million). The deal was signed on Dec. 26, 2006. 

While experts praise Macedonian parties for promising an increase in the minimum monthly wages as a social step in the right direction, they warn that promises of major hikes in average pay rates depend more on economic factors than on politicians' election-time promises.

Bulgarian MPs have approved the a new minimum wage that will be introduced on January 01, 2017.

Starting from that day, its value will be BGN 460 (EUR 230), up from the current value of BGN 420.

Tax declarations under the Excise Duties and Tax Warehouses Act will be submitted online by businesses. The decision was adopted at second reading by Parliament. It is part of the amendments to the excise law.

Parliament adopted at second reading the increase in the excise tax on cigarettes. It will increase from BGN 70 to BGN 101 per 1,000 cigarettes, reported bTV.
 

The budget commission rejected finally the compulsory filing of tax declarations of natural persons via the Internet. This happened at second reading of the amendments to the tax laws.

Citizens will be able to use up to 5% of the tax for additional installments but only if the amount does not exceed BGN 1,000.

The tax reform proposed by Croatia's centre-right government, which will lower income taxes for ordinary people and companies in order to trigger spending and economic growth, "will benefit all", economic analyst Velimir Sonje told BIRN.

In a report presented by Ernst & Young (EY) executive Stefanos Mitsios yesterday during the 8th Tax Forum organized in Thessaloniki by the Hellenic-American Chamber of Commerce, the firm estimates tax evasion in Greece to be as high as 6 to 9 percent of GDP.