Szijjarto: Hungary doesn’t support global minimum tax
International pressure to introduce a global minimum tax in Europe as early as the beginning of next year is continuously growing, Szijjarto said in a post on Facebook. “We consider this extremely dangerous,” he said, arguing that there was a war in Europe and the European economy was facing serious challenges like high energy prices, interest rates and inflation, as well as supply chain disruptions.
In such a situation, increasing the tax burdens of European companies would cause serious problems, especially given that the global minimum tax would only be introduced in Europe, the minister said. The minimum tax would put European businesses at a serious competitive disadvantage against their global rivals, he added.
“But, of course, central Europe would be hit hardest out of everyone,” Szijjarto said. Thanks to disciplined fiscal policies, central Europe has the lowest corporate and payroll taxes, which would see a drastic increase if the global minimum tax were to be introduced, he said.
The key to Hungary’s economic success is that it has continually cut taxes in recent years, Szijjarto said, arguing that tax increases would hurt the economy and threaten jobs.
“We cannot support such a proposal,” Szijjarto said. He said this will be the position Finance Minister Mihaly Varga will represent at Friday’s Ecofin meeting.