Minister of Education and Research Kristina Kallas on Monday met as party leader with the chairs of the other government coalition parties for the first time.

According to Kallas, there was an exchange of info related to the idea of taxing the salary fund, but no substantive discussion took place.

"Since various parties, including coalition partners, are meeting with various businesses and organizations, and we have discussion circles within parties too, then we simply shared info about what has happened in the meantime compared with Thursday's cabinet meeting," she explained. "What businesses' positions are, what the positions are within the parties. The detailed discussion will be in the government cabinet on Thursday."

The Eesti 200 chief said that last Thursday, Finance Minister Jürgen Ligi also presented an impact analysis on the salary tax topic.

"At Thursday's cabinet meeting, we were given an impact analysis for one option as well as for another option," she explained. "In both cases, the impact analysis was presented to us by economic sector. The impact analysis reveals that when taxing salary funds, which is essentially an increase in social tax, it's the sectors of the economy that have already suffered the most during the economic crisis that will be hit the hardest. We need to make a decision that would be the least painful in terms of economic recovery for the Estonian economy and Estonian businesses."

According to Kallas, Eesti 200 has not yet decided whether it would be wise to proceed with the idea of taxing salary funds.

"We haven't made that decision yet; we're holding discussions within the [party] board and the parliamentary group this week," she noted. "So when the cabinet meeting takes place Thursday, hopefully we'll have a position established by that time. But we will certainly be basing it on that impact analysis."

She highlighted that the important thing for their party when it comes to this tax discussion and the security tax discussion is their impact on the economy.

"We're taking quite a bit of additional money out of the economy, and in terms of the impact of this, we need to consider not so much what will bring in more funds for the state budget, but rather that we do as little damage to the economy with this as possible," Kallas stressed.

Minister of Finance Jürgen Ligi (reform) said in an interview with ERR on August 16 that he is considering an additional 2 percent tax on all employee salaries in lieu of an advance income tax on company profits. According to Ligi, this tax would be easier to collect, and would not be a burden for businesses.

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