Belarra demands that the PSOE raise taxes “as signed” and affirms that the PGE “are very far away”

The Minister of Social Rights, Ione Belarra, has launched its amendment to the entirety against that of the Treasury, Maria Jesus Montero… and perhaps, above all, in front of the first vice president, Nadia Calvin. The first is the secretary general of Podemos and says that “Budgets are too far away” to be approved; the other two, work under the banner of the PSOE and announce that they will go to the Council of Ministers “in a week, at most two”.

The truth is that the General State Budget law is still in the first draft. And the purple ones announce war, because they want to add “more fiscal ambition” than they see in the PSOE. That is to say, 15% minimum corporate tax and a rise in personal income tax “for the richest”, that is, to incomes greater than 130,000 euros per year, as stated in the coalition agreement… although the socialists prefer to delay it.

Belarra has raised the banner of raising the Minimum Interprofessional Wage (SMI), boasting that the second vice president Yolanda Diaz, has achieved impose the first time, even skipping your catechism of the “agreement with the social agents”.

According to the leader of Podemos, the presence of the purple in the Government is good “because we achieve these things.” And now that it is time to talk about Budgets, the Minister of Social Rights has warned, in an interview in The hour of the 1 from TVE, that Podemos wants to raise taxes “as signed.” That is, more taxes on companies, and “an effort to those who have more” to “be able to finance the social shield.”

The most important law of the year, as it is known, is because under its mantle the guidelines of the policy that the Executive will deploy in 2022 are woven. And as this is the Government with the least parliamentary support for democracy, the negotiation of the Public accounts are used each year to tighten it by the partners and allies. The objective, to force the Socialists to “comply with what is signed.” And in this course what we have to do is raise taxes.

And do it now without waiting for the conclusions of the expert committee formed by Montero and that it has until the end of February, that is, in five long months, to present its proposal for “tax reform.” That is the term included in the progressive coalition government pact sealed, in December 2019, by the hug between Pedro Sánchez and Pablo Iglesias.

Aware that it will be impossible to force the PSOE to carry out those full duties, the purple ones take advantage of “an international consensus” so that, at least, a “moderate center-left” message is sent, the sources point sarcastically: harmonize the tax of companies at a minimum of 15% for large companies, and at 18% for financial entities -the Devil, according to Podemos- and those of hydrocarbons -those that cause climate change, according to the socialists.

The Treasury says that “it is possible to study”, so as not to grant the letter before sitting down to negotiate. But the truth is that Belarra has learned the speech.

In her interview on TVE, this Wednesday – taking advantage of the fact that, as there is a hyperpopulation of ministers in this Government, this week there were no questions for her in the control session – the heir to Iglesias in Podemos recalled that the “international harmonization of the tax of companies “is a consensus already reached by the OECD (to which Spain belongs), the G20 (where our country has a seat as a permanent guest) and announced by the United States Government itself.

International agreements

In other words, the idea “that United We has been defending for years” is already a plan approved by governments of all ideologies in the developed world and that “it is necessary to continue financing social policies that protect the most vulnerable.” That is to say, that the amendment exercised as an internal opposition of the Government is nothing more than a push to his partner Sánchez so that Joe Biden does not pass him on the left.

Last July, the countries that were debating within the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) reached an agreement to reform the international tax system. The pact includes, as planned, a minimum corporate tax rate at a global level of 15%, as announced by the agency.

The declaration on taxation was signed by 130 countries of the world, representatives of 90% of the gross domestic product (GDP) worldwide. And among them were China itself and the United States itself – the two superpowers that compete with each other for world economic hegemony – as well as the rest of the European powers, including Spain.

Ten days later, it was the G20 finance ministers who agreed on something very similar. Impose a minimum tax globally for large companies. Up to 131 countries signed a principle of agreement to impose a common corporate tax of “15% minimum” and ensure that large companies “pay taxes where you generate your sales” to avoid being taxed in a country other than where the business is generated and thus pay less taxes.

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