Foreword

This report provides a comprehensive tax policy assessment of the taxes paid by individuals in Slovenia and makes recommendations for tax reform. The report is divided into six chapters, starting with a general chapter which sets the scene for tax reform in Slovenia (Chapter 1) followed by a chapter on the labour market, social policy and tax policy related challenges (Chapter 2). The next chapters assess the financing of the social security system (Chapter 3) and identify strategies to strengthen the design of the personal income tax (Chapter 4), indirect taxes (Chapter 5), and the taxation of capital income at the individual level (Chapter 6). The main findings of the report are summarised in the executive summary and the main findings chapter; more detailed recommendations are included at the end of chapters 3 to 6.

This report is included in the OECD Tax Policy Reviews. OECD Tax Policy Reviews are intended to provide independent, comprehensive and comparative assessments of OECD member and non-member countries’ tax systems as well as concrete recommendations for tax policy reform. By identifying tailored tax policy reform options, the objective of the Reviews is to enhance the design of existing tax policies and to support the adoption of new reforms.

This report was written by Bert Brys, Céline Colin and Seán Kennedy and the project was led by Bert Brys. The analysis is primarily based on desk research, OECD statistics and tax modelling including an analysis based on microdata from individual taxpayers provided by the Ministry of Finance of Slovenia. The analysis of the microdata was carried out by Seán Kennedy. The value-added tax microsimulation analysis included in Chapter 5 was carried out by Alastair Thomas. The analysis benefited from a fact-finding mission which took place in Ljubljana in February 2018. During this mission, the OECD team spoke with a wide range of stakeholders and their valuable input is kindly acknowledged. The authors of the report would like to thank the Ministry of Finance of Slovenia for the assistance in organising the mission and for follow-up support in the drafting stage of the review.

The authors wish to thank Mateja Vraničar Erman, Minister of Finance of Slovenia, Tilen Božič, State Secretary and Irena Popovič, Director General of the Directorate for the System of Tax, Customs and Other Public Finance Revenues from the Ministry of Finance of Slovenia, as well as their teams who have provided valuable input and guidance. Thank you in particular to Meta Šinkovec from the Ministry of Finance and Avgustin Staric from the Financial Administration. Thank you also to Irena Sodin, Ambassador, Permanent Representative to the OECD. The authors wish to thank Sarah Perret, Dominique Paturot, Pierce O’Reilly, Alastair Thomas, David Bradbury and Pascal Saint-Amans from the OECD Centre for Tax Policy and Administration for their helpful suggestions and input. The authors are also thankful to Jens Hoj from the Slovenia desk in the Economics Department of the OECD and to Francesca Colombo, Head of the Health Division in the OECD Directorate of Employment, Labour and Social Affairs. Thank you also to Carrie Tyler for her guidance on communications.