Crossroads or roundabout? – Foreword to the taxation policy compilation of Public Finance Quarterly

Abstract

The 18-month history of Gazdasági Versenyképesség Kerekasztal [Economic Competitiveness Roundtable] has clearly shown that it takes a huge amount of naiveté to regard an across-the-board tax reform or even a barely perceptible change in the taxation system as a matter of the profession. In the nationwide series of debates – or rather, with a little malice, a cacophony of voices – about how to improve the taxation system, there are only a few points that seem to have generated a wide-scope agreement. Unfortunately, most of them are general slogans, such as “lower tax burdens are needed”, “tax competitiveness of the Hungarian economy”, and “the Slovak and Baltic examples should be followed”, or simply “the taxation system should be simplified”. It's impossible to achieve all these goals simultaneously, nor it is easy to interpret them, and the apparent accord only lasts until discussions into the details are started.