Kažimír wants to tax Google as well as bitcoin
Finance Minister Peter Kažimír (Smer) will present legislation this year to tax profits from holding cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin. He is no friend of the new phenomenon of cryptocurrencies, as he deems them quite dangerous. “Trading with cryptocurrencies is not regulated and often anonymous, and it creates the risk of terrorism and organized crime,“ he reckons. He has no plans to regulate the cryptocurrencies, despite several other countries having such plans.
New legislation took effect on January 1 that aspires to tax the Slovak profits of multinational tech companies such as Google, Facebook and Booking.com, as well as sharing economy firms such as Uber and Airbnb.
Kažimír will also prepare legislation means-testing the payment of building saving premiums. Only people with below average incomes should be eligible to receive the state subsidy for the building savings scheme. He wants to redirect the state subsidies towards building rental apartments. He wants to replace the current 8% levy on non-life insurance with a new tax on life and non-life insurance policies as of October 1. Another change will increase transparency in relation to brokers’ fees for selling credit and insurance products.
