• Taxes.The Government will allocate the 'Google rate' and the 'Tobin rate' to tackle the Social Security hole
  • Politics.Brokers, clients and banks, against the 'Tobin rate': "It has a collection spirit and will be paid by small investors"

The tax on certain digital services, or Google fee , will not collect the 1,200 million estimated so far by the Ministry of Finance. It was something that, in light of the forecasts of numerous agencies and study services, seemed very evident, and now confirms the Government itself by lowering the income forecast for this figure and recognizing that it overestimated its collection capacity .

In the press conference after the Council of Ministers in which it has been approved - again, since it was already done last year -, the creation of the Google rate and the tax on financial transactions, the Minister of Finance and spokesperson for the Government, María Jesús Montero, has indicated that these figures will allow 968 million to enter in the first case, and 850 million through the second figure .

In the case of the Tobin rate, those 850 million do correspond to the figures that the Government transferred to Brussels last year in its budget plan, before the Executive was unable to carry out the Budgets and declined the fiscal increase that now retakes But in the digital figure, the new figure represents a reduction of almost 20% and corresponds, exactly, with the maximum collection figure already estimated in 2018 by the Independent Authority of Fiscal Responsibility (AIReF).

Montero, however, has not made reference to this situation or acknowledged that there has been an error in the estimates, but has wanted to put the focus on which the "reduced forecast" is due to the slowdown of the economy and the series from other countries ".

Frozen until December

In addition, we must add that the tax will be frozen until December. "The liquidation will be quarterly but during this first year the declaration of income will not be made until December 21, 2020," Montero explained.

With this measure, according to the Minister of Finance, the Government wants to give companies more time to adapt to the new tax and also more room to reach an international agreement. However, this decision, which mimics that already taken by France, also responds to the Government's desire not to have a confrontation with the President of the United States, Donald Trump and avoid any reprisals in the form of, for example, tariff sanctions. And is that delaying the entry into force gives time, as already noted, to have an agreement within the OECD but, also, to hold the elections in the US.

"It will not affect workers"

Montero has also pointed out, as he always does when he talks about the fiscal increase that the Government will carry out, that the measures will not affect the middle class or the workers. However, it is quite probable that both rates end up being passed on to citizens, something that is especially simple in the case of the financial transaction tax.

In fact, brokers and banks have already warned that this will happen, that the 0.2% with which the purchases of shares of companies listed above 1,000 million will be taxed, will be paid by the saved. And Montero, while maintaining the defense of his argument, has ended up recognizing that "there are always shadows."

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  • Google
  • Maria Jesus Montero
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