Prime Minister Ciolacu announces that wage taxes will not be lowered from January 1, 2024. He suggests increasing capital taxation to avoid creating „social crises”

Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu said on Wednesday that a possible measure aimed at reducing labour taxation will be decided at the earliest after the first quarter of next year, when the budget execution for the first quarter of 2024 will be reviewed, according to Agerpres.

He suggested that the decrease in labour taxation must be accompanied by an increase in capital taxation (corporate tax, dividend tax) and argued that otherwise there would be a danger of „social crises”.

He was asked at a press conference in Buzău whether a reduction in labour tax would be applied from 1 January.

„It is not possible from January 1 and we have announced this. We said it’s the first thing we’re looking at, after we see the executions by the end of the year and the execution, first of all, on the first quarter of 2024. We will come, we are considering in coalition, and we have discussed this in coalition, that labor taxation, as you know, is the highest. It mirrors capital taxation. Just to understand, everywhere in the world capital is taxed. We have the highest taxation on labour and the lowest on capital, and we have to strike a balance, because if we do not strike a balance, we will create social crises. This is how we end up with social crises, the accumulation of great wealth on one side and impoverishment on the other, and the endless discussion of why we are increasing pensions. Because they are the lowest, because those people can no longer live on a pension of 1,500 lei and those people are our grandparents and parents, they are the ones who built this country,” said Marcel Ciolacu.

At the moment, labour taxation is made up of income tax, health insurance contributions and pension contributions.

Ciolacu has repeatedly announced that he wants to increase capital taxation.