Public employees seek raising of tax threshold

Public employees’ unions have written to finance minister Constantinos Petrides asking for the raising of the income tax threshold as well as other tax relaxations.

In the letter, signed by the unions of civil servants, teachers and police, the unions are demanding a say in the tax reform that the government plans.

According to information obtained by Phileleftheros, the public employees have proposed the raising of the tax threshold from the current €19,500 to €22,000 as well as changes to the incremental tax scales.

For example, they want the 20 per cent tax bracket to be raised to €31,500 from €28,000, the 25 per cent bracket to €41,000 from €36,300 and the 30 per cent bracket to €67,000 from €60,000. Amounts above the latter amount would be taxed at 35 per cent tax.

The unions – Pasydy, Poed, Oelmek, Oltek, Sak – have cited the rising prices as the main justification for their demand, saying that inflation, from the beginning of 2008 till the end of last year had risen by 11.9 per cent. They also pointed out that for this year the inflation rate would be higher than three per cent.

According to Phileleftheros, the unions are also demanding that 2.65 per cent is no longer deducted from the retirement bonus of public employees for Gesy purposes. They also demand that the defence tax levied on interest earnings be lowered from 30 to 10 per cent.

The unions underlined in their letter that 14 years had elapsed since the last income tax readjustment and change was an imperative.