ECONOMY

Data point to growing communal living trend

Data point to growing communal living trend

The economic crisis, high tax rates and the lifestyle criteria for income determination (“tekmiria”) are bringing taxpayers closer together, it seems, as this year’s tax declarations show that some 1.95 million taxpayers – one in every four – are residing in somebody else’s home.

That figure is quite impressive considering it does not include children who live with their parents and are not classified as “being hosted” in tax statements.

Comparing the data reveals a clear growth trend: In 2014 declarations, the number of taxpayers being hosted by others was 1.85 million, pointing to a rise of 100,000 people in such circumstances in just three years.

The data have resurfaced due to eligibility criteria for handouts stemming from the excess in the primary budget surplus, dubbed the “social dividend.” Thousands of citizens are missing out on the handout altogether or will receive a reduced amount because the incomes of people they are hosting have been added to their own.

Many tenants state they are staying with their landlord for the latter to avoid paying rental tax; others try to avoid declaring their real homes to prevent them from counting as tekmiria, while nursing homes evade taxes by declaring that the people living there are guests.

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