Opinions of the Grant Thornton partners
Our experts comment on business topics that are currently resonating in the public space.
The government’s National Economic Council (NERV) has published a plan to help the economy. According to the advisory body, one of the main pillars of such...
The Transparent Remuneration Directive will be a real revolution – employers will have to fundamentally change their entire approach to employee remuneration. The scope for negotiating starting salaries will essentially be eliminated – the employer will have to publish a minimum starting salary range at the time of recruitment. This will put an end to the employer’s questions such as: And how do you envision your remuneration?
While the Wise Old Man from a fairy tale by Jára Cimrman suggested that the biggest evil are the dwarfs who get everywhere, many political statements from the recent weeks may have led you to the impression that subsidies are exactly such a vicious dwarf for the economy. And the best cure for sick public finances should be to fight against them.
“Groundbreaking decision: neighbours beat a businessman who bought an apartment for Airbnb” or “The building authority has made an unprecedented decision. It banned the owner of an apartment in Jungmannova Street from renting it out via the Airbnb platform.”
Simply put, an unfair commercial practice is a false or misleading act that may influence your decision whether or not to buy goods. False discounts are an example of such behaviour. This is a situation where a trader gives an exaggerated discount on goods based on a price, at which the product was never actually being sold (by anyone). The amendment to the Consumer Protection Act was supposed to put a stop to these imaginary special offers. Why hasn’t it happened?
Buying land is a costly matter nowadays and in some ways, it is a more challenging process than buying an apartment. During the verification, it is not enough to only check the land register. It is also necessary to look at the zoning plan. This may contain various restrictions that may complicate your building plans at best. At worst, you may not get to build anything at all.
The Council of the EU has presented a proposal to update legislation on cross-border shipments of waste. This initiative focuses on the export of waste, the fight against illegal shipments and the digitisation of this activity. The main change will be a ban on the export of waste destined for disposal to other Member States and a restriction on the shipment of waste to non-OECD countries.
The government has put forward a so-called pension reform, but in my opinion, it should not be called a reform. However, I understand that in the context of communication towards the public, such a concept is sexier than “parametric change”. In fact, only the expected partial adjustments were presented, which do not have the potential to solve the structural problem that was presented during the spectacular one-hour introduction of the press conference in the longer term.
The European Union has taken another step that plays an important role in achieving the 2050 climate neutrality targets. As part of a strategy known as “Fit...
