At last 19% corporate tax rate - but is it too late to make a real impact?

Yesterday Finance Minister Grzegorz Kołodko presented his new version of the Public Finance Recovery Program. Four new tax rates will be introduced. People earning up to zł. 6,600 will pay 17% tax, 19% will be paid by those earning between zł. 6,600 and zł. 37,000, while those of with incomes from zł. 37,000 to zł. 74,000 will pay 30% tax. Those earning above zł. 74,000 will be clobbered with a 40% tax bracket. "An introduction of the 17% rate will leave around zł. 2.3 billion in the hands of the less well off," Kołodko said. Liquidation of all tax relief will net the budget zł. 400 million over the next year, and zł. 6.6 billion two years later. Corporate tax will fall to 19%, a figure which will also be applied to capital gains. "The rates can again be lowered when the country returns to the fast track of sustainable economic growth of 5%," Kołodko concluded. (Gazeta Wyborcza, p. 24; Rzeczpospolita, p. B2) A.K.