Ljubljana, 10 May (STA) - A business association has called on political parties ahead of the election to think about simplifying and lowering the taxation of labour given the current high economic growth. "We are proposing higher net wages, because a billion euro is being poured into the budget annually," the association told the press on Thursday.
The association features the Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GZS), AmCham Slovenia, the British-Slovenian Chamber of Commerce (BSCC), the Fraport Aviation Academy and the Manager Association.
GZS president Boštjan Gorjup said that the association wanted to prevent young people from leaving the country because of the uncompetitive environment, "leaving us without key staff for development of the country".
AmCham Slovenia president Nevenka Kržan and BSCC vice-president Jože Oberstar noted that the gap between the gross and net wage in Slovenia was too large.
Oberstar said that the highest-paid managers in large companies got only 34% of the total labour cost paid by the employer, compared to 49% in Croatia, 52% in Germany, 53% in Austria, 54% in the UK, 59% in Serbia and 82% in Switzerland.
Manager Association president Aleksander Zalaznik said that "this is a serious problem in attracting highly qualified staff", adding that "Slovenia must become interesting for highly educated staff income tax-wise".
Kržan assessed that a "battle for talent has already started in Slovenia", and this is why everybody wants stability and a government which would think responsibly and invest in research and development.
The BSCC proposes that holiday allowances of up to 100% of the average wage are exempt from social security contributions, a cap on social security contributions and lower taxation of wages above EUR 2,600 gross.
The chamber has estimated that the proposed measures would reduce budget revenue by some EUR 220m, which it believes is sustainable given an additional billion euro in annual revenue. If economic growth drops below 1%, income tax legislation would be changed.