Deputies believe their earnings as MP's are above taxation

The Sejm Ethics Commission found, according to preliminary data, that more than half of the Deputies, including the Prime Minister himself, have incorrectly filled their personal assets declarations. They forgot to include their revenues as members of parliament in the statements. "We do not claim that somebody was purposely hiding something. Deputies assumed that they did not have to include their parliamentary salaries in their statements, perhaps believing that all they had to declare was income outside that of that of what they received as MP's," said Commission chairman Jaroslaw Kaczynski, adding that he made the same mistake. From a legal point of view, if the Commission decided that a Deputy was hiding part of his revenues, then the prosecutor could be informed. Jaroslaw Kaczynski promised that this time he would not punish anyone, but in the future deputies would have to be more careful. (Rzeczpospolita, pp. A1, A3) M.M.