The leader of the Spanish People’s Party (PP, in the opposition) considered it “a big mistake” to raise some taxes in Spain, which “push” investment to other countries, such as Portugal.
For Alberto Nuñez Feijóo, it is a “big mistake” to tell “Spanish investors and patrimony” that they are “not welcome in Spain and can go to Portugal, where they are well received”.
The Spanish opposition leader spoke in Cáceres, in the Extremadura region, at the XXV Congress of the family business, where he made these statements regarding the new tax package announced last Thursday by the government of Spain, led by the Socialist Party (PSOE). ).
For Feijóo, the Portuguese, unlike the Spanish socialists, are “right”, in a country with a lower tax burden on donations, legacies and patrimony and more flexible environmental regulations.
According to the PP leader, Portuguese Prime Minister António Costa is a Social Democrat, but Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez is not.
Feijóo, who last week praised Portugal’s fiscal policy, said the fundamental thing in a country is to have companies that cannot be stigmatized.
The Spanish government announced a tax package on Thursday that includes cuts to the IRS for low and middle incomes and a new temporary tax for the rich.
The personal income tax cuts (the IRS, in the Spanish acronym IRPF) will cover taxpayers earning up to 21,000 euros gross per year, the average income in Spain, as explained today by the Minister of Finance, María Jesús. .
At the same time, the IRS will rise on capital gains and other gains arising from investments, stocks, or dividends when they exceed $200,000 per year.
At the corporate level, there will be tax cuts for the smallest, those with a turnover of less than a million euros a year, which the Spanish government expects to cover about 400,000.
On the other hand, the introduction of a new “solidarity tax” on major fortunes, more than three million euros, for two years, in 2023 and 2024, justifying the Spanish executive with the need to finance the response to the crisis caused by the war in Ukraine and inflation.
The tax on large fortunes joins other extraordinary taxes announced earlier, to tax banks and companies in the energy sector for two years, with the same aim of financing measures to respond to the current crisis.
In terms of consumption, the package provides for a reduction in VAT on feminine hygiene products from 10% to 4%.
Of the tax increases and cuts announced today, the Spanish government estimates a positive net revenue for the state of EUR 3,114 million over the next two years, which it says is the result of “a fairer model” for distributing financial efforts across the country. whole society.
Feijóo criticized this tax package, which considered only a tax increase to increase revenues by 3,000 million euros, and echoed the PP’s proposals for IRS benefits to cover income up to 40,000 euros and lower VAT on more food.
The PP leader defended that “the economic policy obsession must be to grow”, giving companies confidence, and called for “concern” in the face of a “debt written off”.
Spain has witnessed a “fiscal war” in recent days, with regional governments announcing tax cuts and abolition, to which the national government responded with this tax package and the introduction of a temporary wealth tax.
This new tax had already been introduced by the socialist government in response to announcements by regional governments led by the PP to end or reduce by 50% the tax on assets above 700 thousand euros (300 thousand euros excluded from permanent housing), and which is a recipe from the autonomous regions.
Source: DN
