In an interview with our colleagues from RTL.lu, Sven Clement stated that the authorities need to act quickly to implement the tax credit.
This morning RTL reported that the Ministry of Finance wants to vote on the tax credit before summer. However, the responsible parliamentary committee will not be able to pursue its work until the Council of State has published its opinion on the draft bill.
Sven Clement warned that the government has tabled around 100 draft laws in the Chamber of Deputies and that there is a risk that the Council of State would only get around to about a third of them before summer. Furthermore the governing parties will not be able to hold other sessions after the summer holidays as legislative elections are being held on 8 October.
According to Clement, “the Chamber of Deputies could’ve started working on the draft immediately after they received the project.” In theory, MPs can vote on draft laws before the Council of State has advised on them and in the hope that the latter will drop the requirement for a second vote. “This being said, one should also ask the governing parties why these draft bills haven’t been worked on, before the opinion of the Council of State is available.” Under current Chamber rules, the opposition has no means of speeding up the process, Clement added.
The new tax credit is planned to apply retroactively from 1 January and correspond to two index brackets.
Next year the tax scale will be adjusted to 2.5 index brackets. But the Chamber of Employees is demanding an adjustment to the eight index brackets that have been adopted since the last adjustment, or, preferably, that the scale be adjusted automatically, like it was the case back in the 90’s.
The Pirate Party wants to put the demand for an automatic adjustment into their election manifesto for the legislative elections in October. “To be precise, we want to look at where the index stands at the end of the year, and then we expect the government to submit a well-founded proposal on how to adjust the scale to the Chamber of Deputies.. Then, of course, it will be up to the government and the Chamber to decide whether to make the adjustment.”
This demand has already been discussed within the party, but the election manifesto has not yet been adopted.
