Families with annual incomes below 60,000 found encouragement when they read about the proposal by the DISY party and other party MPs to amend legislation to benefit households with medium incomes through reduced income tax.
However, they should know that the chances of such a modification being implemented are now rather slim before decisions are made regarding the overall promoted tax reform.
Finance Minister Makis Keravnos made it clear early on (even before the proposal was officially submitted to the Parliament’s Plenum) that a fragmented proposal to amend income tax legislation would not be accepted.
Speaking yesterday on the midday show of ANT1, Keravnos stated that attempts made within the Parliament while discussions on tax reform are ongoing are inopportune.
Referring to “fragmented moves” by certain parties, the minister highlighted that whenever elections approach, we see such proposals which, according to him, are close to populist approaches.
The rational thing would be, he added, for no one to play games with either the economy or society.
Despite the initial and decisive “no” from the Finance Minister to the DISY’s proposal and other MPs, DISY’s president Annita Demetriou, in statements shortly after Keravnos’, emphasised that the aim of the proposal is to provide tax relief to middle incomes, which need it most in the current conditions we are living in.
She also noted that the proposal specifically concerns families with medium incomes, where one of the two spouses has an income below the tax-free amount, adding that “essentially the unused tax-free amount of one spouse will be transferred and added to the tax-free income of the other spouse.”
According to Demetriou, the proposal is financially feasible and has a ceiling, so that only middle households will benefit from the measure.
“We believe it is necessary, especially in the current conditions of high cost of living and high interest rates, which disproportionately affect the middle class,” she stressed.
The law proposal was prepared by DISY and co-signed by DISY MPs Alekos Tryfonidis, EDEK’s Elias Myrianthous, the Greens’ Stavros Papadouris, and ELAM’s Sotiris Ioannou.
