Apprenticeship tax raised to 0.6% for companies with 250 or more employees and few work-study trainees

Article 16 of the Equal Opportunities Act supplements Article 225 of the General Tax Code: the apprenticeship tax rate owed by companies with 250 or more employees rises from 0.5% to 0.6% when the annual average number of under-26s on professionalisation or apprenticeship contracts is below a threshold of 1% of the workforce in 2006, 2% in 2007 and 3% thereafter. The surcharge applies to the tax on wages paid from 1 January 2006.