COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF INCOME TAX IN THE REPUBLIC OF CROATIA AND OTHER SELECTED COUNTRIES OF THE EUROPEAN UNION

Porez na dohodak predstavlja oblik izravnog poreznog tereta za poreznog obveznika svake zemlje. Njegov povijesni razvoj i primjena kreće u 1799. godini kada je u Ujedinjenom Kraljevstvu uveden prvi porez na dohodak kao income and property tax. U cilju određivanja objekta i osnovice za ubiranje ovog poreznog oblika navode se tri koncepta koja se međusobno suprotstavljena: teorija izvora, teorija čistog prinosa te Fisherov koncept. Također, oporezivanje dohotka u državama odvija se prema odabiru prigodnog modaliteta za svaku državu od kojih su najčešći engleski, germanski te romanski, dok se u praksi najčešće pojavljuju u kombinacijama. S razvojem globalizacije, razmjenom i kretanjem tehnologije, ljudskih resursa i kapitala dolazi do potrebe zaštite poreznog obveznika od dvostrukog oporezivanja te se u tom vidu uvodi koncept svjetskog dohotka koji umanjuje negativne učinke oporezivanja stečenog dohotka. Navedeno dolazi do važnosti posebice u ekonomskim zajednicama kao što je Europska unija. Porezno opterećenje u zemljama članicama Unije stoga se razlikuje, države članice s većim ekonomskim razvojem više oporezuju rad svojih građana, dok slabije razvijenije države članice uporište stavljaju na oporezivanje potrošnje. Također, najmanji udio BDP-a u ukupnim prihodima od poreza na rad imaju istočne zemlje članice Europske unije. Promatrane zemlje ovog rada – Republika Hrvatska, Republika Poljska te Mađarska tranzicijske su zemlje stoga imaju određene sličnosti u svojim poreznim sustavima. Promatrajući obračune na dohodak u navedenim zemljama uočene su razlike u poreznim stopama, naime Mađarska ima proporcionalnu stopu poreza na dohodak od 15%, dok Hrvatska i Poljska imaju progresivne stope na oporezivanje dohotka. Također, stope na doprinose za socijalno osiguranje iz plaće najveće su u Republici Hrvatskoj, a najniže u Mađarskoj u promatranom slučaju poreznog obveznika bez uzdržavane djece. Analiza obračuna poreza na dohodak dalje je ukazala na složenost poljskog obračuna zbog čestih poreznih reformi. Nadalje, nakon provedene komparativne analize u slučaju poreznog obveznika bez djece, rezultati su pokazali da poljski zaposlenik snosi najmanje porezno opterećenje u vidu samog iznosa poreza na dohodak dok mađarski zaposlenik u promatranoj grupi zemalja snosi najveće porezno opterećenje u vidu razlike između bruto i neto plaće.The income tax is a form of direct tax burden for a taxpayer in each country. Its historical development and implementation started in 1799. when the first income tax was introduced in the United Kingdom as income and property tax. There are three concepts of the identifying the object and basis for the taxable income: theory of the income source (Fuisting), theory of net asset growth (S-H-S concept) and Fisher’s concept of income. Additionally, taxation of the income in countries takes place according to the choice of modalities – english, german and romance, while in practice the most common ones appear in combination of these three. With the development of the globalisation and movement of technology, human resources and capital, comes the need of protection of a taxpayer from double taxation. Mentioned leads to the introduction of the concept of world income that reduces negative effects of income taxation. This comes in particular in economic union such as European union. Therefore, taxation in the Union varies from country to country, more developed economic countries are taxing more labour, while less economic developed countries are taxing more consumption. Also, the lowest proportion of the GDP in total revenue from labour have eastern EU Member States. The countries observed in this thesis - Republic of Croatia, Poland and Hungary are transition countries so therefore have certain similarities in their tax systems. Analysing calculation of the income taxes, comparative analysis showed that Hungary has income tax rate of 15% (flat tax), while Croatia and Poland have progressive income taxation rates. Also, rate on social security contributions paid by employees is the highest in Croatia and the lowest in Hungary in the observed case of a taxpayer without dependent children. Furthermore, the analysis of income tax in these countries pointed the complexity of Polish calculation of the income tax which is the result of frequent tax reforms. Moreover, comparative analysis in this thesis showed that Polish employee without children and with national average salary bears the lowest tax burden in the amount of income tax itself, while Hungarian employee bears the biggest tax burden in terms of the difference between gross and net wage