About 650 billion forints should be surrendered from the budget in order to lower the current 15% personal income tax rate to a single-digit figure, Finance Minister Mihály Varga said late on Tuesday. He added, however, that he does not feel this is timely now.


Varga admitted at an event organised at a discussion held at the Faculty of Law of ELTE university that he had not been an avid fan of the flat-rate PIT earlier, but since then he has been convinced it was actually a good idea. The minister believes it’s a matter of choosing your values and he finds it important that "when you have to pay for something, we should respect that". He thinks that abolishing the 0% rate raises interest for public affairs and it does not spur anyone to work if they have to pay proportionately more just because they earn more.

As regards funds taken abroad, Varga said he is not a Communist so he does not envy anyone’s income. He is of the view that basic income is also a Communist idea that is not an incentive to work.

Varga said it is difficult to predict if there would be a crisis. Some economists like to raise red flags about this and if it actually hits they will be celebrating themselves. The minister suggests everyone to try and live a life where they believe a crisis is a possiblity.