2023-09-28 19:32:30
The Senate approved the law that modifies the Income Tax, raising the floor of the Non-Taxable Minimum to almost two million pesos, which is equivalent to fifteen minimum, vital and mobile salaries and which will govern from 2024.
With the presence of the Vice President of the Nation, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, who came down to the premises at the time of the vote, the initiative received the support of 38 votes, contributed by the Frente de Todos, its allies and the Federal Unit, while Together for Change demonstrated with 27 votes against, which generated general uproar in the boxes populated by union members, among whom were Pablo Moyano and Sergio Palazzo, who instantly began to sing The Peronist March.
The initiative sent by the Minister of Economy, Sergio Massa, reforms the Income Tax by creating a new income tax based on an amount equivalent to 15 minimum, vital and mobile salaries (SMVM), with a progressive rate on the surplus ranging from 27% to 35%, which will be updated semiannually based on the evolution of the SMVM.
Based on this scheme, the main points of the project contemplate the creation of a new “schedular tax on the highest income from work in a dependency relationship, retirements and privilege pensions and others.”
In this way, those who obtain the highest income will have the right to deduct only, as a non-taxable minimum, the amount equivalent to 180 minimum wages.
In the case of the highest salaries at 15 minimum vital and mobile salaries, the rates will range from 27% to 35%.
The project also determines that the value of the SMVM in force on January 1 must be considered at the beginning of the fiscal period and that the update will be on July 1 of each fiscal year.
In addition, it foresees that the withholdings made on the highest net income received during the first half of the fiscal year will be adjusted considering the value of the SMVM in force in July.
Finally, the initiative stipulates that in the case of workers in a dependency relationship and for retirees and pensioners included in the tax who live in the provinces of La Pampa, Río Negro, Chubut, Neuquén, Santa Cruz, Tierra del Fuego and the Patagones district, in Buenos Aires, the non-taxable minimum will increase by 22%.
The head of the Frente de Todos interbloc, José Mayans, stated that the ruling party decided to “sustain the present State” and added that “these commitments are Constitutional.”
“We confirm that salary is not profit and we demand the recovery of the worker’s salary. This is a project, nothing more, but it will help workers be a little happier,” he indicated.
On the contrary, the radical from Formosa, Luis Naidenoff, predicted that “all the measures that were adopted are electoralist in nature and so scandalous that they are going to lead us to hyperinflation.”
“In this house that we have to defend the provinces, we are burying them and providing co-participating funds,” stated the senator and argued: “I cannot believe that the CGT applauds a measure for the richest, when 46 million Argentines are crushing with the inflation tax”.
When opening the debate that began at 6:05 p.m., the president of the Budget and Finance Commission, Ricardo Guerra, assured that “the modifications proposed by the bill are based on the concept of not considering salary as a profit but rather as what “that is, compensation for work and, in the case of retirement, a retirement benefit.”
On the contrary, the vice president of the Commission, Victor Zimermann, of Together for Change, assured that “this is a project that means an enormous loss of resources for the provinces and that is why we propose that we have to find the necessary consensus to carry out a “fundamental tax reform”.
His benchmate, the radical Buenos Aires Martín Lousteau, warned that the fiscal cost of the measure causes “0.83 of GDP to be lost, that is, doubling next year’s budget deficit.”
“In addition, the poorer the province is and the lower its salaries, the less local benefit. Is that progressive, is it equitable? Because when they took the money from the city of Buenos Aires in the middle of the pandemic, they said the complete opposite. It amazes me that This is how voting is being done in this house,” he said.
Alberto Weretilneck, from Juntos Somos Río Negro, acknowledged that “some complaints about the fiscal situation of the provinces are understandable,” but he said he was “absolutely proud that my friend the minister has made this decision, because not just anyone makes this decision in the moment we are living”.
Rental law
The Senate of the Nation approved today the project that reforms the Rental Law and introduced some changes to the initiative sanctioned at the end of August in the Deputies, so it must return to the Chamber of origin for a second review, which will now only be able to accept modifications or insist on the original sanction.
In the Senate, the project was approved by 37 to 29, and had the support of the Frente de Todos and the Peronist senators that make up the Federal Unity bloc; while Together for Change voted against because it intended to approve the project that had been reviewed by Deputies and sanction the law today.
The initiative coming from Deputies established that the parties must agree on the mechanism for updating the rental price at the beginning of the rental relationship, being able to apply for such purposes the consumer price index (CPI), the wholesale price index (WPI) and the salary index (IS), prepared by the National Institute of Statistics and Censuses (Indec) or a combination of said indices.
On the other hand, the project approved by the Senate establishes three years as the minimum legal lease term and adds that “lease contracts for” housing will be stipulated “in a single value in national currency and for monthly periods over which adjustments may be made.” periodically at intervals of no less than six months.
The Senate also modifies the mechanism for updating the price of rents, providing that “the adjustments must be made using a coefficient made up of the smallest variation that arises from comparing the average of 0.9 of the variation of the salary variation coefficient published by the INDEC , and the variation of the reference stabilization coefficient, published by the BCRA.”
The project approved in the Senate also modifies the rule that has been reviewed by Deputies by incorporating a last paragraph on article nine establishing that “income from the rental of up to two properties will be exempt from paying the Monotributo.”
Finally, a new article is added, number twelve on the Income Tax: “the parties may deduct from the Income Tax the sum equivalent to ten percent of the annual amount of the lease contract.”
The president of the General Legislation Commission of the Upper House, the Pampean official Daniel Bensusán, recognized that “the opinion that came from Deputies was not to the liking of almost any of the parties.”
In addition, he maintained that “the opinion that we presented from the Frente de Todos was prepared responsibly and provided certain tools to solve this problem that many families are experiencing.”
Likewise, he stated that “it is a responsibility that we all have to try to achieve a solution that we all achieve.”
In turn, the vice president of the Budget and Finance Commission, the radical Chaco Víctor Zimmermann, reiterated the position of Together for Change of “sustaining the half-sanction that came from Deputies.”
“There are almost eight million Argentines who are waiting for the approval of a definitive law and there are many pending contracts who are waiting to see what happens in this room,” he insisted.
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