Only 20 percent of the respondents support the Golob government’s plans to tax all real estate. There was much more support for other proposals.
The authorities keep on trying to convince us that their intention is to put a heavier tax burden on the rich, not on ordinary citizens, who should have even more money in their pockets than before. Given that, at the beginning of this year, their measure caused even those who receive an average wage to feel a drop in their net pay, many find it hard to believe their promises. Especially since everything we have seen from them so far was an artificial increase in the minimum wage. Since it is well known that in Slovenia, it is customary for people to build their homes with the help from their neighbours and by giving up spending in order to save up, many people are now particularly worried about the property tax because, according to the announcements, the current government will not only tax the second or third property, but all properties, progressively and according to their value. The outrage at this proposal was confirmed by people’s reactions and by the results of an opinion poll conducted by the Parsifal agency for Nova24TV between the 20th and the 23rd of March. The majority of respondents think that the property in which a person lives should be tax-free. However, a high percentage want everything to stay as it is.
The survey asked people to indicate which of the following five views they preferred: “The property in which one lives should be tax-free”; “Everything should stay as it is now”; “Only the empty properties should be taxed”; “All properties should be taxed, depending on the value of the property”; and “All properties should be taxed, depending on the income of the owner”.
When asked about the prospect of property taxation, the largest share of respondents (28.6 percent) expressed the belief that the property where the individual lives should be tax-free. 27.4 percent thought that things should stay as they are. Only empty properties should be taxed, according to 17.3 percent of respondents. However, 20 percent of respondents think that all properties should be taxed (regardless of the base for the taxation – the value of the property and the amount of income of the owner). 6.7 percent of respondents remain undecided on the question.
It is clear why there is so much opposition to property taxation, as people are aware that additional taxation will further deteriorate the quality of life, which is already worse than it was in light of the current crisis, and for those who could not afford to pay the tax, it may even lead to eviction from the property they got by paying for it with the money from their own pockets. On top of that, it is well known that Slovenia is in the golden mean when it comes to property taxation. Robert Golob tried to sell the public the story that Slovenia is among the last in the world in terms of property taxation, but then it did not take too long before he admitted that the property tax could not bring that much money to the state budget and that we would, therefore, be taxing real estate property in particular. That the Golob government is full of logical nonsense was already very clearly pointed out by economist and former Minister of Finance Janez Šušteršič.
General demographic data on the participants in the survey
The survey was conducted between the 20th of March and the 23rd of March 2023, and it included 730 respondents, of which 49.9 percent were women. The average age of the participants is 53.8 years, and the standard deviation is 16.7 years. The majority of the respondents are from the oldest age group (48.3 percent), a slightly smaller share of participants belongs to the middle age group (32.8 percent), and the smallest number of respondents is from the youngest age group (18.8 percent). The majority of the respondents have completed high school (34.3 percent), followed by those with completed high education or higher (28.5 percent), 21.8 percent of respondents have finished vocational school, and 15.4 percent have either completed or have not completed primary school. The majority of the respondents currently reside in a small village or hamlet (53.3 percent), followed by those who live in the city (30.9 percent) or a smaller town (15.7 percent). Most of the respondents are from Central Slovenia (25.7 percent), followed by the Podravska (15.8 percent) and Savinjska (12.8 percent) region.
Sara Kovač
