The Tax Freedom Day initiative was launched by Krzysztof Dzierżawski (1948–2004), an expert at the Adam Smith Centre. Compared with the previous year, when Tax Freedom Day fell on June 28, we are working for the needs of the state for six days longer. The level of fiscal burdens is currently the highest in almost 30 years.
More than half of the annual working time is allocated to financing the state budget. This prompts reflection and an examination of the effectiveness of public spending, as well as consideration of possible changes to the tax system.
What must we pay to the homeland? Our blood, sweat and tears
Nowadays, no one would officially call working for the state serfdom, although we work for half the year solely to pay: direct taxes (PIT, CIT), indirect taxes (VAT, excise duty), social security and health insurance contributions, local fees and levies, earmarked funds and local-government expenditure.
A history refresher! In the 17th century, serfdom reached six person-days of unpaid work per week. In the mid-17th century, it amounted to four or five person-days, while in the 18th century it sometimes reached six or seven, or even ten person-days per week. To clarify: a peasant was obliged to work with his sons or hired farmhands in order to complete a specified number of “labour person-days” per week.
Let us ask how our money is spent! Let us demand transparency
Above all, politicians at every level of government should be required to be transparent about spending taxpayers’ money. It is our money! We should also demand that tax burdens be rationalised in order to minimise their negative impact on economic activity and the motivation to work. A balance between budgetary needs and the burdens placed on citizens is essential for improving life in Poland.
Ceramics Festival, swimming pools, stadium, spending on sport and culture—every penny counts
We work for this for half the year. Let us therefore take an interest in whether money is being spent rationally, who makes these decisions and how decisions are made at the local level. What the local government builds, at what cost, and what it spends the money so hard-earned by residents on.
The 2024 Ceramics Festival cost us more than one and a half million zlotys, yet no one measures its results! When the festival organiser, Kornel Filipowicz, director of BOK–MCC, published some of the costs, we learned that the cultural events alone cost half a million zlotys, including more than PLN 360,000 for the headline acts performing over three evenings. To this day, it has not been disclosed whether the costs of the Festival included activities by the Museum of Ceramics (workshops, vernissages and exhibitions), workshops organised by the Knowledge Centre, events organised by MOSiR, and the cost of additional city cleaning by MZGK.
For three decades, the Ceramics Festival in Bolesławiec has remained an event of undisputed popularity; however, there is no reliable estimate of the number of tourists visiting us.
The data provided to us is unclear and calls the reliability of the estimates into question. Residents should have clear information: the type of contract, its completion date, what it concerns and its value. That is all. Such transparency regarding contracts is essential.
In 2016, former Civic Platform councillor Arkadiusz Krzemiśnki appealed for a kind of promotional campaign to be organised to show the mayor that there was demand for it and that people wanted to know what their money was being spent on. He also stressed that councillors’ task was to involve people in the affairs and life of the city. No one has carried out the campaign to this day.