Slovakia wants to reroute money from NGOs to pensioners

Prime Minister Robert Fico’s war on NGOs continues with a change to the tax code, which will give citizens the option to provide a portion of their taxes to their parents rather than NGOs, Labour Minister Erik Tomáš announced.

The current Slovak tax code gives individuals and companies the option to provide 2% out of their taxes to an NGO of their choice.

“This step will harm not only anti-corruption non-profit organisations but also, for example, organisations that help the elderly or seriously ill people,” says Norbert Chomistek from the Stop Corruption NGO, adding that it “pits society against itself” by creating a competition between civic organisations and the elderly.

Marcel Zajac, chairman of the Government Council for NGOs, said that the change would likely bring “loss of a significant part of the funding that non-profit organisations use to meet their public benefit objectives”, adding that most of the donated money is assigned to social and healthcare organisations.

In 2023, Slovaks assigned almost €94 million to NGOs in this way, a €12 million raise from the previous year. The biggest recipient of the aid for multiple years has been the Pontis Foundation, which promotes social innovation and responsible entrepreneurship, among other things.

The move is part of a larger reform meant to raise money for 13th pensions next year, from this year’s €50-300 to €606. The reform will include cancelling the previous government’s parental pensions, which were a part of social insurance.

Tomáš acknowledged that the changes will likely affect NGO finances and said he wants to pass the reforms in a fast-track procedure, which was also criticised by the NGOs as unnecessary and detrimental to discussions.

Fico previously said his government would end “NGO rule” and promised to introduce a Russia-style foreign agent law, which would label organisations receiving foreign funding as such.

(Barbara Zmušková | Euractiv.sk)