Annabella quiroga
02/08/2021 22:00
Clarín.com
Economy
Updated 02/09/2021 7:48 AM
The government wants to prevent workers' earnings relief from becoming a
$ 40 billion
fiscal hole
.
For this, along with the initiative of Sergio Massa that seeks to free from the payment of this tax to employees who charge up to $ 150,000 gross, Congress will debate
another bill that suspends the reductions of profit rates for companies
that had been established in the tax reform carried out by the macrismo in 2017.
The intention of the Government is that the suspension of the reduction applies to companies that
had "high profitability" during the pandemic.
Massa's bill will benefit 1.2 million workers.
And it has the endorsement of both President Alberto Fernández and the Minister of Economy, Martín Guzmán.
Alberto Fernández and Martín Guzmán.
The president, the minister and Massa himself were analyzing the issue on January 17, in Chapadmalal.
Alberto Fernández had gone to that seaside resort to take a few days off.
In that meeting Massa got the OK to put together the project, under the slogan of "correcting defects in the changes that were made in 2017, which included some 300,000 employees in Earnings," official sources indicated.
Before the consultation of this newspaper about how they will compensate the fall of these $ 40,000 million, official sources indicated that "another bill duly presented
determines the scope of Gains on companies
, so it will be sought that the changes are neutral in fiscal terms ".
This is a project generated in the Executive Power that suspends the reduction of rates for companies that had been set in 2017. The first reduction took the rate from 35% to 30% and the next, which began to apply this year, I'd take it from 30% to 25%.
It is
that step from 30% to 25%
that is now being put on hold, in a session in which both projects would be discussed at the same time.
In addition,
the profit rate for the profits distributed by the partners of the companies will
be increased from
7% to 13%
.
In the 2017 reform, it had been established that this rate would rise gradually.
Now we will seek to go to the highest level in one go.
"The new scheme
does not imply a loss of fiscal resources
with respect to the provisions of the 2021 Budget," official sources indicated.
"This is so because this measure will be taken simultaneously with the
modification of Law 27,430
of 2017, which established a reduction in the Corporate Profit rate to 25% in force for 2021," they added.
As detailed "what is sought is to build a more progressive tax system, where the tax burden is distributed more fairly among the different income levels."
And they remarked that "the companies that maintained high profitability, even in the framework of the economic crisis unleashed by the Covid-19 pandemic, will
have their Profit rate cut
off as expected, while the floor rises from which the workers will be covered by this tax. "
What remains to be defined is from which parameter it is determined that a company had "high profitability".
This change in company rates marks
a new rise in the tax burden,
amid permanent complaints from the productive sector on this issue.
The $ 40,000 million fiscal cost of the Massa project is equivalent to
0.1% of the gross product
, according to the calculations of Juan Ignacio Paolicchi, of the consulting firm Empiria.
This amount is equivalent to slightly
less than half
of what the State allocated last year to each of the installments of the $ 10,000 bond of the Emergency Family Income (IFE)
With 9 million beneficiaries, each IFE payment - there were three in the year - required resources for $ 90,000 million.
With access to markets closed, these amounts were covered with monetary issuance.
For this year,
the issue would not be a possible vein,
since the Government wants to ensure that inflation does not exceed 29%, which represents a significant reduction compared to 36.1% last year.
The announcement of changes in Earnings occurs almost in parallel with
the resumption of negotiations with the Monetary Fund
to reach an agreement that allows extending the term of debt payments and, eventually, access to fresh funds.
And at the same time it overlaps with President Fernández's threat to the countryside by saying that he could resort to increases
in withholdings
or quotas on exports to stop the rise in food.
AQ
Look also
Changes in Earnings: they begin to deal with the project this month, which was endorsed by Cambiemos
The CGT supported Sergio Massa's project that raises the income tax floor