Lietuva in brief - 2011-04-07

Lithuania’s tax system is not fair, not because of the lack of it being progressive, but because the resident income tax is not applied to some high income earnings, Prime Minister Andrius Kubilius says, reports ELTA. “For example, last year, Viktor Uspaskikh declared earned income of over 8 million litas (2.3 million euros) and he paid only 10,000 litas in tax, which is completely legal. Meanwhile, I earned over 150,000 litas and paid 20,000 litas in tax. Uspaskikh received more income, [much of] which is not taxed at all” said Kubilius. In an interview on Ziniu Radijas, the prime minister said he saw rationality in the Social Democrats’ proposal to abandon exceptions for interest or the income received from the sale of shares, and tax such income. Kubilius says that he is neither a big supporter nor a big opponent of progressive taxes. “At the end of 2008, we approved a progressive [program] for the amount of tax-exempt income, but it lacks fairness since some income, and high income, is not fully taxed,” said Kubilius.

Eight (81 percent) out of ten Lithuanian residents think that the general situation in Lithuania is worsening; seven of ten respondents are disappointed with the way democracy functions, according to a survey conducted by the market research and public opinion company Baltijos Tyrimai from Feb. 15-23, reports ELTA. Seventeen percent said that the situation was improving, while 2 percent had no opinion on this issue. The evaluation improved by 9 percent compared with the results of the survey conducted a year ago, in February 2010. A year ago, only 8 percent of the respondents viewed the situation in Lithuania favorably. In their assessment of democracy in Lithuania, seven out of ten adult residents were dissatisfied with the way democracy worked in the country. A quarter of the respondents said that they were satisfied with Lithuanian democracy, whereas 8 percent said they had no opinion. A year ago, in February 2010, the number of residents satisfied with democracy in Lithuania was lower by 7 percent.