From January 1, 2027, Croatian pensioners will no longer pay tax on pensions, which will bring some of them a significant boost to their household budget.

The Government has decided to speed up this measure, and it will come into force a year earlier than originally planned. As Snježana Krnetić writes for 24sata, Prime Minister Andrej Plenković made this decision in order to mitigate the consequences of rising living costs.

According to information reported by 24sata, the measure will cover almost half a million citizens. Those whose income is below the tax-free threshold of 600 euros should not expect increases because they have not been taxed until now either.

Detailed calculation of income growth by city

Pensioners in Zagreb, where the tax rate is the highest at 11.5%, will benefit the most from these changes. Recipients of a pension of 1,000 euros in the capital will receive 46 euros more each month, those with an income of 800 euros will see an increase of 23 euros, while those with 650 euros will receive only 5.75 euros.

Citizens of Osijek, Rijeka, Dubrovnik, Vinkovci and Čakovec with a pension of 1,000 euros will have 40 euros more, and with a pension of 800 euros they will receive 20 euros.

Fight for a fairer system

Although representatives of pensioners' associations welcome this relief as an inalienable right earned through work, part of the public warns that it helps exclusively those with the highest incomes. The president of the Croatian Pensioners' Association, Višnja Fortuna, points out that this is the right step and states that the associations continue to advocate for dignified amounts of the lowest incomes and 100% indexation of adjustments. Given that the average pension in Croatia amounts to 689 euros, and the median only 513 euros, it is clear that half of pensioners will not feel this measure at all because their income does not exceed the personal allowance threshold.

The complete abolition of the tax undoubtedly represents a popular political move ahead of the upcoming election cycles. While those with pensions above 1,000 euros will feel concrete relief of several dozen euros, hundreds of thousands of citizens surviving on incomes below 600 euros remain left to fend for themselves in the fight against inflation.

This approach relieves the middle and upper strata of pensioners, while the problem of poverty among the most vulnerable must be addressed through other mechanisms, which leaves open the question of whether the state budget will in the future have the capacity for targeted assistance to those who truly need it most.