The study “Attitudes of Poles towards paying taxes and the role of the state in the economy”, which was carried out by the Polish Economic Institute (PIE) concludes that Poles do not see the relationship between taxes and state expenditures; they do not know the structure of state expenditures and finally, Poles change their preferences when learning the structure of state expenditures.

Poles are sceptical about paying taxes. A significant proportion believes they are too high and are dissatisfied with paying them. Only 35% of surveyed Poles agree with the statement “I am glad that I pay taxes”. In Finland, 80% of citizens are positive about it.

At the same time, Poles’ expectations of the state fulfilling certain functions, are high. Probably many citizens do not see a contradiction in such an attitude, as they do not feel the connection between paying taxes (their amount) and the state’s involvement in economic and social matters (state spending). As much as 83% of citizens believe that taxes in Poland are too high.

Poles also do not know the structure of state spending. This conclusion concerns in particular the state’s expenditure on pensions and administration. In the perception of citizens, these are categories of state expenditure of a similar size, while in reality expenditure on pensions and disability pensions is six times higher than on administration.

The PIE survey shows that citizens expect an increase in state expenditure on health care, pensions and education and cuts mainly in expenditure on administration. Meanwhile, providing respondents with knowledge about the actual structure of state expenditure improved the overall assessment of the state’s effectiveness (opinion on the scale of wasted expenditure). Firstly, the percentage of people expecting cuts in expenditure on pensions and disability pensions increased significantly. Secondly, the expectation of increasing expenditure on environmental protection increased, too. The experiment also revealed the strong attachment of citizens to the idea of cutting administrative spending.

Adrian Andrzejewski order