In the midst of the negotiations for the omnibus law, the PAIS tax became a loot that everyone fights over.
No wonder: in January, as a result of the devaluation and tax changes, the collection for
this tax jumped 1,252% and reached 469,199 million pesos.
The Tax for an Inclusive and Solidarity Argentina (COUNTRY) started a little more than four years ago, when Alberto Fernández's administration began and
went from being a slap of a drowning man to stop the outflow of dollars to a lifeline to which the governors intend to cling
, who see how the Nation cuts their funds and at the same time pressures them to support the omnibus law through their legislators.
From its creation until today, the COUNTRY Tax has a specific assignment.
70% remains in ANSES and PAMI and 30% goes to a trust fund to carry out works in the provinces.
What has changed in these years, and which has been strengthened by the Milei presidency, is both the composition of the tax and the operations that are carried out.
Originally the tax had
a rate of 30% that was applied to the purchase of savings dollars and card operations abroad
.
Six months ago, when Sergio Massa was Minister of Economy, he extended it to imports, with
a rate of 7.5%.
Thus, the tax revenue was boosted first by imports and then by the jumps that the dollar made from August of last year to today.
In that period it went from $290 to $827.
In turn, MIlei expanded it by
raising the rate to 17.5% for imports.
When reporting the January collection, the AFIP specified that the jump in the PAIS tax is due to "the expansion of its tax base with the income of the payment applied to certain imports."
“At the same time, they increased compared to previous months, due to the increase in the exchange rate, and the increase in the rates for both payment on account and imports of goods and freight with respect to those in force in the month. previous”, maintains the organization.
From the IARAF they point out that in January, without taking into account the effect of inflation,
the collection of the PAIS tax rose 25.4% in real terms compared to the month of December.
The co-participation of the PAIS tax is the
bargaining chip
that the governors request to endorse the changes in the omnibus law.
The leaders' claim is that they be compensated with this for the loss of the co-participation of the Income Tax that they themselves endorsed last year and that freed up the payment of that tax to 95% of the workers.
In the original project of the omnibus law, Milei sought for
the Nation to keep 100%
of the proceeds from the tax.
That is, eliminate the 30% that was allocated to works for the most unfavorable sectors.
Given this, the governors counterattacked by asking for it to be shared, which would allow them to keep practically half of what they receive from that tribute.
Although there was progress in preliminary talks with government negotiators,
Milei slammed the door on that idea.
But the governors believe that there is still room to fight.
In the middle, the Monetary Fund stuck its tail.
And in the staff report that the organization issued after approving the disbursement of
US$ 4.7 billion
that was pending for Argentina, it marked the field.
There they mention that the new government committed to eliminating exchange restrictions in the short term and to dismantle
the PAIS tax at the end of the year.
This collides with the governors' demand for co-participation.
"It is known that if the tax is shared, no more is taken out,"
argue the negotiators most tied to the care of the treasury.