The opposition press, which always tries to find the right one for gossip, surprised its readers with another remarkable article, this time on the issue of personal income tax refunds. Sometimes nothing is good, but at least it's good.
Zsuzsanna Tamásné Szabó's article published on 24.hu "Sja-refund deepens the gap between family and family" already has a strong impact:
"While the system generously rewards those with children who earn above the average before the elections, those with low incomes and those in need can only dream of the maximum of HUF 809,000. While there will be families where both parents can receive the maximum sja refund in February - a total of more than HUF 1.6 million -, in other families the extra money may be a fraction of this, if any at all. The principle of need does not prevail at all."
The author's use of words is not only contradictory, but also revealing, since "generous reward" is not exactly synonymous with "reimbursement of paid tax", yet it is labeled as such. The goal is, of course, known to the point of boredom, the raucous maximization of demagoguery, the pitting of social groups against each other with the falsely hypocritical message of "You get it, I don't, but how much more I would need it".
The opposition media workers deliberately do not want to understand the approach of the civilian government, even though it has been unchanged for eleven years now: the construction of a work-based society with the unprecedented support of the families that form the basic unit of society. Not with his aid, at least not primarily, but with his support, but we will return to aid later. The government gives nets instead of fish, and it is understandable that those who want fish right away don't like that, but the naysayers are forgetting the reality this time, that someone else has to catch that fish before we start handing it out. The principles of freedom, equality, and fraternity have once already failed in blood, as it usually happens with mica dust ideologies, because human nature regularly fails them. However, since human nature is predictably unchanged, the need for free beer and eternal life remains; there are those who do not learn from anything. It is easy for a scribbler and a politician, the strings of base emotions swing easily under their hands.
But what exactly does this incriminated refund ?
All parents with children who are entitled to a family discount will receive a refund of the tax deducted from the income earned in 2021, and in the case of ekho and katas, a quarter of the itemized tax for 2021. But it is not only those entitled to the family allowance who can get back the sja paid in 2021, as the refund is determined by the family allowance. Tax refunds for parents raising children are given to those who were entitled to a family discount for even just one day this year. A family discount applies to those who: are entitled to family allowance as a parent after a child, a pregnant woman and her spouse living in the same household, who are entitled to family allowance in their own right, receive a disability allowance.
The upper limit of the repayment is the tax content of the average annual salary calculated on the basis of December 2020 data, i.e. 15 percent. The state will refund a maximum of HUF 809,000 to parents who pay taxes according to the sja and ekho separately. Self-employed entrepreneurs raising children can get a quarter of their 2021 itemized tax back. In short, that's the point.
But back to helping those in need – do you still have the iconic “there is no free lunch” slogan? - because the naysayers also easily forget that the Fidesz government is the first in Hungary to provide children not only with textbooks, but also meals for free. The myth of starving children is, of course, popular among the opposition, but the reality, indeed its background, in an interview with Roma expert István Forgács :
"Gypsies should take advantage of the benefits in the system, but as long as they remain public workers or not, this will not happen. For example, where there is free school meals for 90% of the children, it is not allowed that half of the food goes to the washroom in the first two weeks of the month.
Are you going to the washroom?
There.
Why doesn't the child go to school?
He doesn't eat it. In the first two weeks of the month there is much more laundry than in the second two weeks. At the beginning of the month, they still have money from the family allowance, father's public service money, so they eat chips, colas, energy drinks, and don't eat the pumpkin stew with a side, they want fried meat instead. And to this my liberal friend says that I should cook the pumpkin stew more delicately, Józsika would surely eat it. But that's not the case, because Józsika really needs deep-fried meat instead of pumpkin stew.
It's always someone else's fault.
This one has that in it, yes. In the last two weeks of the month, they obviously also eat the iron nails, because then they are already happy about the free food. So my problem is that the government spends tens of billions on an extremely important and good cause; we try to fight against child poverty by putting food in front of them. And if the government would dare to take on a little more courage so that these could be discussed locally, that would be good. For example, two billion forints were allocated to keep girls in school, and I think this was the first time in the past twenty-seven years that a government took clear and targeted action on a real problem."
All in all, we understand that the task of the opposition propagandists is to discredit the government's family support system, which is unprecedented throughout Europe - and this certainly includes social benefits -, to bully the people by creating moods, smears, or even outright lies, but the reality always comes in the face. Always. The only question is sooner or later.
