engleski

Citizens and experts: how different is their opinion on the tax system in Slovenia

Following the tax policy priorities put forward by different theories about fostering economic growth through tax systems, different tax changes were made in last decades in different countries. In the paper, we will present research results of experts’ and citizens’ opinion about the tax system in Slovenia. The growing economic crisis has resulted in a range of reforms, and tax system is no exception. The main proposals are focused on shifting the tax burden away from labour, broadening the tax bases, improving tax compliance and reducing company debts as a result of corporate income tax. An overview of the reforms in the last three years shows that the majority of countries in Europe have made considerable efforts to prevent tax evasion ; and in order to stimulate economic growth, countries have decreased corporate income tax or adopted additional tax measures to promote scientific and research work, investments and entrepreneurship in general. At the same time financial crisis forced governments to consolidate budgets and in most cases these changes are against the proposals. Our survey covers citizens and three sectors of experts: academic, private and government. We wanted to find out whether all four groups agree/disagree with the statements connected to the tax system and, consequently, with changes in the field of taxation, its influence on economic growth. The central thesis of this paper is that, despite the known theoretical assumptions on tax reforms that would promote economic growth, tax experts and citizens in Slovenia in general do not support such changes and are in favour of changes that are actually focused on fiscal consolidation. We also made binomial probit regressions in order to determine how values influence their opinion.

Tax; Slovenia; Economic; Growth

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