opinion

A taxing subject

MIRIAM DUNN hopes that this year’s budget will really target the big fish and give the minnows a bit of a break

It’s that time of year again - B-day is approaching.

No, not birthday, I’ve got quite a bit longer to wait before celebrating that, although at my age the words celebrate and birthday don’t really belong in the same sentence.

I am, of course, talking about the budget, that infamous rust-coloured briefcase which holds a collection of papers telling us where our hard-earned pennies will be going and how our collective attempts at filling in the island’s infamous ‘hofra’ are faring.

The annual budget is, by its very nature, the focus of much gossip, speculation and hype.

This is inevitable. On a grassroots level, we all love discussing where our money is or isn’t going – the ridiculous price of cauliflowers is currently a favoured topic of conversation in many a grocery store, just as an analysis of tax brackets makes for a quick chat over an espresso in the local coffee shop.

And on a higher level, nothing provides a better platform for those at the top to gain publicity and political mileage than a budget. Especially the unions and opposition parties, after all, it’s a fact of life that it’s easier to complain than provide solutions.

And don’t we just love to complain, if we’re honest, it simply seems to be part of our psyche. Come on admit it, we’re all gearing ourselves up for the annual November assault on the finance minister and his entourage, aren’t we, rubbing our hands with glee at the prospect of ripping him to shreds, suitably primed with the non-stop talk about our ever-expanding ‘hofra’.

But stop, what’s this, some highly uncharacteristic Chinese whispers to the effect that this budget might not be quite as bad as some of those crippling ones in the past, which both political parties have been guilty of subjecting us to.

Words such as tax-break have been doing the rounds in both the corridors of power and the coffee-shops-that-count. Wow, that would stop us in our tracks, wouldn’t it. What would we professional complainers and the General Workers’ Union do with nothing to moan about?

But we will always complain, even if it isn’t justified, after all, it’s a national pastime isn’t it? But there is one complaint that I will stick my neck out for every time the opportunity comes my way. And that is the salaried worker’s grumble that he is targeted at every budget.

Most people understood the finance minister’s words when he said that the country was going to have to help fill our ‘hofra’. But their understanding wavered somewhat when the definition of the ‘country’ began concaving into certain sectors, in particular the average wage-earning employee.

The disgruntlement among these people stemmed from the fact that they felt they were easy prey for the financial hunters, and that they have, so far, borne the brunt of the government’s attempts to make inroads into sorting out the mess that is the public deficit.

In naïve mode many moons ago I remember commenting to someone that I couldn’t understand why Malta had such a massive public debt. People seemed to have money, I said, two cars, beautiful houses, more swimming pools than Hollywood. Of course, someone retorted, there’s plenty of personal wealth on the island, it’s the public deficit that’s the problem.

And now, quite rightly, the finance minister wants to reign in some of that money that should have gone his way a long time ago.

He is on record as saying the days of tax evasion on a rampant scale are over. But the salaried worker’s patience is wearing thin, especially with the recent clampdown on fringe benefits, which they viewed as a kick when they were already down.

In our sister publication, Mr Dalli described these fringe benefits as having got out of hand, which is not very far from the truth. But taking away Mr Average’s fringe benefits when tax evasion is still rampant among so many professionals is tantamount to George Bush entering Afghanistan and returning home with Bin Laden’s granny as a trophy.

If the finance minister wanted to have Joe Citizen on board as he makes what is, after all, a commendable and brave effort to bring down the public debt, he could have done much better to show that he is also tackling tax evasion among the big fish. Perhaps he should really have targeted these people first and given the minnows a bit of a break.

No one likes paying taxes, but the salaried worker is, at least, used to regarding them as a necessary evil. A lot of professionals still don’t, they squirm and wriggle their way out of parting with as little cash as possible, paying accountants to help them do just that.

We have been subjected to lots of leaked stories in the press about just how much professionals are earning in certain fields and about a severe lack of fiscal receipts still being the order of the day among many services. If these reports have been paving the way for drastic measures, aimed at whipping up the right sort of feeling among the public, then fine. But patience is running out among those of us for whom paying tax is a monthly obligation. We might be annoyed at these professionals, but we are also getting frustrated at those who are meant to be taking steps to remedy the situation.