Description
The project is a continuation of the Foundation's monitoring activities focused on informing the public about the impacts of the tax and benefit policies. In connection with the parliamentary elections in 2015, the project will use a micro-simulation approach to evaluate government policies versus election promises. First, policies introduced since 2007 will be compared and contrasted with the ruling party's promises made in 2007 and 2011 elections. Secondly, different tax and benefit policy options and their projected impacts on households and state budget will be presented and current party manifestos will be reviewed. The project is designed to target the general public and to contribute to the pre-election political debate by channelling it to specific fiscal policy alternatives.
Summary of project results
"Consistency between political declarations and real policies forms an important part of the properly functioning democratic system. While decisions taken by politicians concerning taxes and levies have significant impact on household budgets of citizens, it is difficult or even impossible for individual citizens to evaluate economic effects of such decisions. For many years, CenEA has been evaluating the effects of fiscal policies on the economic situation of households, and remains the only independent and apolitical research centre presenting data in this field to the general public. The aim of the project was to create conditions for an informed debate on the effects of the existing government policies in the field of taxes and levies, as well as evaluation of promises made by politicians. The only possible means to accomplish the aim is to present reliable, objective information on the effects of particular solutions for average citizens. Under the project, detailed analyses of tax and levies policies were performed for the election year 2015 in Poland. The parliamentary elections formed an opportunity, on the one hand to sum up the policies of the government ending its term, and on the other to analyse program declarations made by politicians during the election campaign. A series of reports were presented to popularise the knowledge on the Polish system of taxes and levies, indicating to what extent the social and economic aims declared by politicians translate to their real actions. Six research reports and supplementary materials were published. Each publication was accompanied by media campaign. Results of the analyses were widely commented in media and repeatedly cited in debates before and during the election campaign. As a result, the quality of public discourse was enhanced, and bad practices used by political parties in the election period were harnessed. The reports developed under the project were cited by the biggest and most influential Polish papers and the most popular public and private TV stations. The results were also widely commented in electronic media."
Summary of bilateral results