Ex-Minister of Finance of Bulgaria: Ukraine needs speedy and radical tax reform

As a part of #UkraineReforms project, the Kyiv School of Economics continues publishing video podcasts with successful reformers from neighboring countries.

Ukraine needs speedy tax reform, the taxes should be adjusted quickly and radically, especially, when political environment is unstable, according to Simeon Djankov, former Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance of Bulgaria.  At the same time, the government has to look for alternative sources of public revenues, which can be found in privatization, indirect taxation.

“I think every country is going in the next 10-15 years to move towards indirect taxation system – taxing labor less and taxing capital more because all of Europe – Ukraine included, my own country Bulgaria included is having issue with demography,” – Mr. Djankov says. “That means that social security taxes should be lowered over time, including in Ukraine, and the personal income tax, which is a sort of a labor tax, needs to be lowered as well.”

#UkraineReforms was launched in November 2014 by Wilfried Martens Centre for European Studies (hyperlink http://www.martenscentre.eu/)  in partnership with the Kyiv School of Economics, Reanimation Package of Reforms and Stronger Together.

More videos with prominent politicians from neighboring countries are available here.