The Tax Continues, The Constitutional Court Dismisses Citizens’ Lawsuits

The Constitutional Court today, by a majority vote, rejected the request of the President of the Republic and the proposals of more than 35,000 citizens and associations who challenged the so-called crisis tax, asserting that the Law on Special Tax on Salaries, Pensions, and Other Income is in accordance with the Constitution.

Reporting Judge Mario Jelušić explained that the law on the ‘crisis tax’ is consistent with the principle of equality of all citizens before the law, especially since it has been extended to so-called freelance professions, and that it protects the principles of a social state. Furthermore, this law also benefits retirees, although it suspends the provision on the equalization of pensions, as they need not fear that their pensions will be reduced due to falling prices, which was the basis for earlier equalization, Jelušić stated. At a recent advisory session, government representatives claimed that the crisis tax fills the state treasury with about 200 million kuna monthly and enables the payment of pensions, social rights, and salaries to users of the state budget.

Contrary to the views of the government, the majority of university professors, as well as representatives of unions and retirees, and the envoys of the President of the Republic, asserted that the Law on Special Tax on Salaries, Pensions, and Other Income is not in accordance with the Constitution. By today’s decision, the Constitutional Court obliged the government to monitor and continuously examine the need for the special tax until the end of 2010 and to abolish it before the end of next year if the intensity of the economic crisis decreases. The President of the Constitutional Court, Jasna Omejec, stated that the contested law passed the ‘objective test of constitutionality’ and that the criteria for the decision were sought exclusively in the text of the Constitution, not in ‘political or economic assessments of appropriateness.’ Judges Mato Arlović and Ivan Matija disagreed with the decision that the crisis tax is in accordance with the Constitution and announced separate opinions. The other 11 judges voted in favor of the decision. (H)