He affirms that they will not mean “added effort” for families and the Treasury recalls that it is one of the commitments reached with the EU within the framework of the Recovery Plan
Mara Jess Monteror has decided to recover the tax reform that yearns since he arrived at the Ministry of Finance and that, after convening a committee of experts and already with its recommendations in hand, it had to paralyze as a result of the war unleashed in Ukraine by the Russian invasion.
This conflict exacerbated the escalation in prices that Spain is already suffering and has caused an international crisis that will significantly slow down the growth of the Spanish economy. The situation is so complex that Moncloa is preparing for a worsening of the crisis at the turn of the summer, and the first vice president, Nadia Calviono longer flatly rejects the possibility of a recession.
The problems and fears, therefore, are far from disappearing, but Montero is willing to resume her reform and, consequently, raise taxes. This is what she has pointed out in an interview granted to EFE, in which she has explained that the Government is going to negotiate with the European Commission “measures that are compatible with the situation in Europe as a whole“.
The person in charge of the Treasury has pointed out that these actions will not suppose an “added effort” for families, and that they will not act on transport and energy either. The tax reform proposal presented by the experts included numerous actions in this area, but Montero stated that “it makes no sense to increase taxation on certain fuels when we’re practicing a bonus.”
In the Ministry they remember that the fiscal reform is a commitment that was acquired with Brussels within the framework of the Recovery Plan. That just as there is an obligation to adopt measures on pensions, there is also an obligation in the fiscal field. These modifications must be based on the ‘White Paper’ for tax reform which, as has already been pointed out, contained numerous actions on fuels and taxes.
Once these actions have been ruled out, the experts’ proposal indicates, for example, the need to apply a gradual rise in VAT simplifying it and eliminating reduced rates. This action has been requested by Europe on numerous occasions, since the EU considers that Spain collects comparatively very little for this figure. It is, therefore, something that will most likely be negotiated, although it would have an obvious effect on the families that Montero affirms that he does not want to punish any more.
Another action that is proposed is fiscal harmonization between regions, a point that has confronted Montero with the regions governed by the PP and, especially, with the president of the Community of Madrid, Isabel Díaz Ayuso. Experts denounce the “drift” that has occurred in recent years and the “downward competition” in the figures of Patrimony and Inheritance and Donations.
Auto finance
It also seems very likely, therefore, that Montero will speed up this process, which will undoubtedly intensify these clashes with the PP. And what will not only fuel them but has already unleashed them is the autonomous financing proposal that the Minister of Finance has announced that she will send to the regions. In that same interview, the also number two of the PSOE has announced that, after the summer, send to the communities a new financing proposal linked to the adjusted population and has criticized the fact that the autonomous governments continue to be “protected by the model of maximums that each one defends”.
The financial manager of the PP, Juan Bravo, has already disdained this proposal, and after reproaching that the Government “has done nothing” for four years, he has assumed that the current model I don’t know how to change in the remainder of the legislature. “I always trusted that she was a minister who, when she was Minister of the Treasury of Andalusia, defended the modification of the financing system (…). Four years have passed and nothing has been done with the regional financing model”, lamented the ‘popular’ economic manager in an interview on RNE collected by Europa Press.
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