Constitutional complaint against cancellation of certain provisions of the income Tax Act

A group of senators submitted a request to the Constitutional Court for annulment of certain provisions of the Income Tax Act, specifically the provisions that cancelled the possibility to apply a tax discount by taxpayers who are also old-age pensioners as of 1 January of the year in question (the wording of the act being effective from 1 January 2013).

The plenum of the Constitutional Court will consider the complaint under file No. Pl. ÚS 31/13. The arguments of the senators are based on the general principles of non-discrimination and the related infringement of several articles of the Charter of Fundamental Rights and Freedoms.

The tax amendment gave rise to a number of discussions concerning this issue between employees on the one side – working old-age pensioners (“non-old-age pensioners”) who suspended receipt of their old-age pensions for one day as of 1 January 2013, and the financial administration headed by the then-minister of finance on the other, who declared that any abuse of the rights should not be tolerated. It will certainly be interesting to see how the plenum of the Constitutional Court decides.