“Focus on Mothers" - KINCS press conference
Balázs Hankó, Minister of Culture and Innovation, Zsófia Koncz, State Secretary for Family Policy, and Tünde Fűrész, President of KINCS, held a joint press conference at the Kopp Mária Institute to present the latest government measures to support mothers, as well as the impact and social perception of the recent tax relief programme.
Balázs Hankó underlined that the Hungarian family policy is appreciated in many parts of the world, with more than 30 targeted measures to support families in all life situations. The Minister of Culture and Innovation considered it as a significant improvement, that the budget for families will reach 4,800 billion Forints in 2025, equivalent to 5% of GDP, that an additional 800 billion Forints will be made available to families in the form of utility cost reduction. The family tax reduction scheme will provide further tangible support for families, as next year a family with a mother under 30 with one child will save 1.5 million Forints per year, a family with a mother under 40 with two children will save 2.2 million Forints per year, and a family with three children will save 3.7 million Forints per year. At the press conference, the Minister announced the relaunch of the “Csalad.hu” website, where everyone can find out what support is available for their current or future life situation.
Zsófia Koncz recalled that just before Mother's Day, the Hungarian Parliament passed the five bills that form the basis of Europe's largest tax reduction programme. The State Secretary for Family Policy said that Hungarian families had never before received such significant support as they are about to receive. As a result, from 2029, all young people under 25, all mothers under 30, all mothers over 30 with more than one child and all parents receiving infant care fee or child care fee will benefit from the personal income tax exemption. In addition, the “Infant Care Fee Extra”, modelled on the “Child Care Fee Extra” launched in 2014, will be introduced to allow mothers to return to work while still receiving 70% of the infant care fee. The PIT-exemptions and the doubling of the family tax allowance will also significantly increase the monthly support: the average additional monthly income for a mother under 30 will be 129,000 Forint, for a mother with two children 189,000 Forint and for a mother with three children up to 307,000 Forint.
According to Tünde Fűrész, one of the most important effects of the tax reduction programme for mothers is that the gender pay gap between women and men will disappear. The President of KINCS explained that in Hungary, men earn on average 15% more than women, but thanks to the personal income tax exemptions, women's average net income will be 5% higher than men's. The President of KINCS also presented the results of the institute's survey from March, which showed that the highest proportion of respondents (86%) agreed with the PIT-exemption of CSED and GYED. Eight out of ten people think that the tax reduction programme will be of great help to mothers, and 74% agree that family policy should be tailored primarily to the needs of mothers.
