A recent suggestion to impose a tax on unmarried individuals has sparked widespread public debate in North Macedonia, despite Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski later clarifying that the proposal was not a formal policy.
Over the weekend, Mickoski said the government did not intend to introduce such a tax but aimed instead to provoke discussion and raise awareness about the country’s declining birth rate, warning that “Macedonia is quietly dying.”
Tax expert Slavko Lazovski said the idea highlighted deeper structural issues in the national tax system. “We do need new types of taxes, but certainly not a tax on unmarried people,” Lazovski told Deutsche Welle. He criticized the country’s narrow and outdated tax base, saying it left large segments of income and property untaxed.
“We have very few taxes, both nationally and locally,” said Lazovski, who works with the Center for Tax Policy. He advocated for environmental taxes, arguing that polluters should contribute more to public revenues. “We are not following the EU’s best practices in this area,” he added.
Financial analyst Branimir Jovanovic also rejected the idea of taxing unmarried citizens. “There are other ways to improve birth rates and keep young people from leaving the country,” he said in a statement to Telma TV.
“Instead of coming up with such ‘creative’ ideas, the government should ask itself why people are leaving and why those who stay don’t have children,” Jovanovic said. He urged authorities to focus on improving wages, healthcare, education, and air quality — the factors that most directly impact citizens’ quality of life.
“The key to reversing demographic decline is raising living standards. If people face low wages, high costs, poor healthcare, and unaffordable housing, they will neither stay in the country nor have children,” he said.
Taxes in North Macedonia fund public services through mandatory contributions from individuals and businesses. They include income tax, consumption taxes such as VAT and excise duties, property taxes, and inheritance tax. In 2023, the government introduced a one-off “solidarity tax” on companies with revenues above 615 million denars (€10 million) to mitigate the impact of the economic crisis. However, the Constitutional Court later struck it down, requiring the state to return around €49.2 million to 156 companies.
Lazovski also proposed taxing pet ownership to help address the country’s persistent stray dog problem. “We can’t solve this by cutting public spending on education or healthcare. A dedicated levy would be more effective,” he said.
He pointed to local taxation as a weak link in the fiscal system. “Even former finance minister Zoran Stavreski called it the weakest part of the system. Despite high expectations for reform, little has changed,” Lazovski said, noting that the country has fallen behind in fiscal decentralization since the late 1980s.
He also revived the idea of taxing religious communities — a proposal that has been raised and stalled multiple times in the past. Lazovski argued that all entities with assets and income should be part of the tax system. “We should resume work on the stalled legislation for religious taxation, tax consulting, and the overarching public tax law,” he said.
Following backlash, Prime Minister Mickoski reiterated on Sunday that no new tax on unmarried citizens would be introduced. Instead, he emphasized the need for incentives and public dialogue.
“There is a global debate on demographics, and tax breaks alone are not always effective. South Korea, for example, spent up to $270 billion over 15 years, yet still has the world’s lowest fertility rate,” he told Sitel TV.
Mickoski noted that births in North Macedonia dropped from about 23,000 in 2016 to 16,000 in 2024 — a 30% decline — and pledged a package of measures to address the demographic crisis.
“We are dying out — slowly but surely,” he said.