Comparative analysis of the tax wedge in Croatia and Slovenia from 2005 to 2020

Purpose: Personal income tax (PIT) and social security contributions (SSC) play a significant role in tax systems. Since both of them affect employers and employees, it is important to analyse the labour costs paid by the employer (gross wage) and the net wage received by the employee, i.e., the tax...

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Main Authors: Sandra Krtalić, Paula Peruško
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Faculty of Economics and Business in Osijek 2023-01-01
Series:Ekonomski Vjesnik
Subjects:
Online Access:https://hrcak.srce.hr/file/439836
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author Sandra Krtalić
Paula Peruško
author_facet Sandra Krtalić
Paula Peruško
author_sort Sandra Krtalić
collection DOAJ
description Purpose: Personal income tax (PIT) and social security contributions (SSC) play a significant role in tax systems. Since both of them affect employers and employees, it is important to analyse the labour costs paid by the employer (gross wage) and the net wage received by the employee, i.e., the tax wedge. Methodology: Following OECD’s Taxing Wages methodology, this paper analyses the characteristics of the tax wedge and the tax wedge policy in the Republic of Croatia and the Republic of Slovenia in the period from 2005 to 2020. Results: The conducted analysis has shown that a Slovenian taxpayer faces the highest average net tax wedge for each observed family type, and that the Croatian tax wedge is lower in all hypothetical units observed. The taxpayer with the highest average gross wage also faces the highest tax burden. The problem of a relatively high tax wedge in Croatia and Slovenia does not lie with the personal income tax, which is relatively low, but with social contributions. Conclusion: The tax wedge primarily depends on the level of income, it decreases if the taxpayer has (more) children, and its amount depends on various levels of tax, deductions and social security contributions. In the future, the focus will be on alleviating the labour tax burden. However, this begs the question of how to further alleviate the burden on labour without implementing major structural reforms in the pension and healthcare system and/or introducing new tax forms.
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spelling doaj.art-2b720a5eea254ff99899abb3b3fbd1da2024-04-15T18:40:44ZengFaculty of Economics and Business in OsijekEkonomski Vjesnik0353-359X1847-22062023-01-0136111410.51680/ev.36.1.1Comparative analysis of the tax wedge in Croatia and Slovenia from 2005 to 2020Sandra Krtalić0Paula Peruško1Juraj Dobrila University of Pula, Faculty of Economics and Tourism “Dr. Mijo Mirković”, Pula, CroatiaOTP banka d.d.Purpose: Personal income tax (PIT) and social security contributions (SSC) play a significant role in tax systems. Since both of them affect employers and employees, it is important to analyse the labour costs paid by the employer (gross wage) and the net wage received by the employee, i.e., the tax wedge. Methodology: Following OECD’s Taxing Wages methodology, this paper analyses the characteristics of the tax wedge and the tax wedge policy in the Republic of Croatia and the Republic of Slovenia in the period from 2005 to 2020. Results: The conducted analysis has shown that a Slovenian taxpayer faces the highest average net tax wedge for each observed family type, and that the Croatian tax wedge is lower in all hypothetical units observed. The taxpayer with the highest average gross wage also faces the highest tax burden. The problem of a relatively high tax wedge in Croatia and Slovenia does not lie with the personal income tax, which is relatively low, but with social contributions. Conclusion: The tax wedge primarily depends on the level of income, it decreases if the taxpayer has (more) children, and its amount depends on various levels of tax, deductions and social security contributions. In the future, the focus will be on alleviating the labour tax burden. However, this begs the question of how to further alleviate the burden on labour without implementing major structural reforms in the pension and healthcare system and/or introducing new tax forms.https://hrcak.srce.hr/file/439836labour costspersonal income taxsocial contributionstax wedgeCroatiaSlovenia
spellingShingle Sandra Krtalić
Paula Peruško
Comparative analysis of the tax wedge in Croatia and Slovenia from 2005 to 2020
Ekonomski Vjesnik
labour costs
personal income tax
social contributions
tax wedge
Croatia
Slovenia
title Comparative analysis of the tax wedge in Croatia and Slovenia from 2005 to 2020
title_full Comparative analysis of the tax wedge in Croatia and Slovenia from 2005 to 2020
title_fullStr Comparative analysis of the tax wedge in Croatia and Slovenia from 2005 to 2020
title_full_unstemmed Comparative analysis of the tax wedge in Croatia and Slovenia from 2005 to 2020
title_short Comparative analysis of the tax wedge in Croatia and Slovenia from 2005 to 2020
title_sort comparative analysis of the tax wedge in croatia and slovenia from 2005 to 2020
topic labour costs
personal income tax
social contributions
tax wedge
Croatia
Slovenia
url https://hrcak.srce.hr/file/439836
work_keys_str_mv AT sandrakrtalic comparativeanalysisofthetaxwedgeincroatiaandsloveniafrom2005to2020
AT paulaperusko comparativeanalysisofthetaxwedgeincroatiaandsloveniafrom2005to2020