The Minister of Social Inclusion, Jose Luis Escriva, has proposed this Tuesday the fiscal harmonization of taxes in all the autonomous communities. He himself clarified that it is a proposal made “in a personal capacity” and the minister spokesperson, Elizabeth Rodriguezas he has repeated in the press conference after the Council of Ministers.
However, that same proposal was not only defended by the Government, but also became agreed with ERC in 2020 within the agreement for the General State Budgets for 2021.
In December 2020, the own Gabriel Rufian announced the agreement with the Government, which made it possible to approve these amounts from the State.
The Minister of Finance, Maria Jesus Montero, then made statements defending the need to put an end to what he called “fiscal dumping” of the Community of Madrid. Repeatedly, Montero has denounced this alleged abuse of Madrid to the detriment of other autonomous communities.
ERC sources explain that the Government told them then that that part of the pact would be removed from the Budget agreement to take it to a future reform of the regional financing system. But the Treasury has slowed down this change in the fiscal model of the autonomies and, according to ERC, there has been no progress on the part of the Government.
Fear of such harmonization made the Government of Isabel Diaz Ayuso advance in a law to try to shield their tax cuts. Now Andalusia has joined Madrid in using the ability of the communities to lower taxes with the intention of attracting taxpayers and investments.
On a “personal” basis
Escrivá returned to recover that idea of harmonization by law that Tuesday, but this time, the Government spokeswoman has limited herself to remarking that it is a “personal opinion” of the minister and that, in any case, that option will be processed in her case in the new regional financing model. The Government admits that this model will not be reviewed in the remainder of the legislature for political and calendar reasons.
[El Gobierno se desliga de la recentralización de impuestos propuesta por Escrivá: “Es una opinión personal”]
ERC sources assure that they will not demand compliance with the tax harmonization agreement in the negotiation of Budgets for 2023despite the fact that Catalonia is the target of the measure approved by the Government of Juanma Moreno.
This time the Government has chosen to avoid talking about harmonization. What he has done is attack the PP because he considers that with the abolition of the wealth tax, the highest incomes are rewarded.
However, the socialist government of Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero In 2008, he abolished the wealth tax because, as he said, it punishes the middle class and is unfair. He recovered it in 2011 when the crisis forced him to seek more resources and Mariano Rajoy kept it.
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Source: Elespanol
