site.btaThis Year's Tax Freedom Day Will Be May 16

This Year's Tax Freedom Day Will Be May 16

Sofia, January 6 (BTA) - By May 16, 2016, Bulgarians will theoretically have earned enough income to pay their annual taxes, according to a forecast by the Institute for Market Economics (IME) published on Friday. This will be the nation's Tax Freedom Day, the day of the year when, figuratively speaking, people stop working for the government and begin working for themselves, IME said. It is the time by which the public purse would be filled up if the government collected all income from the nation at once.

In 2017, Bulgarians will produce an average of 261 million leva every calendar day. With projected consolidated budget revenue at 35,440 million leva, close to 136 days will be needed to fill up the public purse and ensure public expenditures. The more than 2,600 million leva aid from the EU mean that European taxpayers' money will go towards ten days of filling up the Bulgarian budget.

In 2017, value-added tax will take the most time, 34 days, to produce. Excise duties will take a little more than 19 days to generate. Social insurance will require 22 days, and health insurance 9 days. Personal income tax will be generated in 12 days, while corporate income tax will be generated in nearly 8 days. Another 8 days of work will be necessary to earn the money for central and municipal government fees, IME said.

The Tax Freedom Day has been coming ever later in Bulgaria over the past few years. Working people bear the biggest burden in filling up the public purse. Taken separately, their tax burden is 50 per cent, meaning that their Tax Freedom Day will not come until early July.