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  • Gobierno.Podemos wants to replace the wealth tax with a non-discounted large fortunes tax

The tax on the large fortunes that United Podemos wants to implement includes a very ambitious collection estimate. Too much, maybe. According to the estimates of the training led by Pablo Iglesias, this new tool would contribute an amount equivalent to 1% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), which represents more than 11,000 million euros and multiplies by 10 the revenue that currently reaches the Wealth tax to which it would replace.

Specifically, this figure contributed in 2017, the last year for which there are official figures from the Tax Agency, a total of 1,112 million euros. From the Treasury they usually remember that the wealth tax has certain bonuses, the case of the Community of Madrid being especially notable.

The Tax Agency indicates that in that 2017 the bonus in the community of the capital amounted to 995 million. One of the objectives of the ministry led by María Jesús Montero is to end this situation of, in her opinion, inequality between communities and which collaborates in what she herself describes as tax dumping . However, even taking that amount into account, the final figure would be around 2,000 million, which would still be five times less than the new Podemos rate.

Likewise, if the tax on large fortunes is compared with other taxes, the complexity of the Podemos plan is verified. The Corporation Tax , which is the one that all companies must pay, collected in the last year 23,733 million euros after suffering a 4.4% drop.

A minimum rate for Companies

Montero also wants to act on this figure, imposing a minimum rate and making especially large companies pay more. But in any case, the Podemos tax would already contribute almost half that of this tax, which is one of the pillars of the national tax system.

"We really don't know what their calculations are based on. That data is only held by the Ministry of Finance. The figures, from the outset, seem somewhat exaggerated," explains Stella Raventós , president of the Spanish Association of Tax Advisers (AEDAF).

"It is a very, very high figure. Unreal. Ensuring that it will collect almost half of what companies contribute ... It seems too much to us," says Jesús Sanmartín , head of the Registry of Fiscal Advisory Economists (REAF), as which adds that the Podemos proposal seems poorly developed and elaborate. "It should have a report behind it, an opinion that allows us to collate the data," he says.

Diaz insists on the rate

And yet, Podemos insists on this figure. This Wednesday, the Minister of Labor, Yolanda Díaz, pointed out in Congress that all countries are working on how to increase collection in the midst of a crisis, and recalled that training is part of the Government, but that it also has its own political program.

"As soon as the underlying reasons can be addressed, we will deploy the government agreement. We must advance in a fair fiscal policy," said the minister, as reported by Europa Press .

For its part, the Treasury maintains that the tax system already has enough tools to make "those who have more, pay more", without the need to create new rates or taxes. Examples, point, tightening the wealth tax itself, increasing personal income tax or even through corporation tax.

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