The rise in taxes on large companies clogs the Budgets

The President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, and the Foreign Minister, José Manuel Albares, this Wednesday in New York Pool / Moncloa / Europa Press

Taxes, especially those of large companies, for the moment block the negotiation on Budgets between the PSOE and United We Can. Coalition partners need to first close Accounts with each other and then negotiate with their allies. Unidos Podemos requires that these Budgets include a minimum of 15% of the effective corporate tax rate, something that affects especially large companies, because small companies, which have more difficulties in seeking exemptions, already pay higher rates. The PSOE wants to delay one more year the application of this reform, which was agreed in 2018 and has been postponed due to the pandemic.

United We Can has increased the pressure, with Ione Belarra and Yolanda Díaz launching messages in this regard, and from New York Pedro Sánchez has not completely closed the door to that idea, unlike on other occasions.

Sánchez has assured that there will be Budgets "in a timely manner", this is according to La Moncloa, in two weeks.

But he has insisted in answering two specific questions about that minimum of 15% that they have to be Accounts that mark "a fair recovery", which leaves the negotiation open.

More information

• Nacho Álvarez: "These Budgets must serve to deploy the coalition agreement"

Sources from the socialist sector and United We can point out that the negotiation is blocked on this matter, but everything is very open.

The Minister of Finance, María Jesús Montero, negotiates with Nacho Álvarez with this 15% on the table as a great milestone, but there are many other pending issues.

The coalition comes from agreeing a great progressive turn in the subject of the light, with a clear intervention in the market.

The minimum of 15% would be another gesture in this line, although a good part of the socialist sector of the Executive is in favor of leaving this reform for 2023, when the recovery is consolidated, or even for the next legislature.

United We can have made a very strong commitment to the coalition and there does not seem to be an alternative at the moment to continue in the Government, but its electoral expectations have been decreasing since it entered the Executive and it needs to justify to its electorate with impact measures the usefulness of his permanence in the coalition.

The light agreement was an important spur, but now they are looking for more.

From the other side, the PSOE is also approving progressive measures that connect it with its natural electorate, but it is more sensitive to commitments with Brussels and is fleeing the image of a leftist government that raises taxes that the opposition wants to install.

In the balance between these two positions will be the agreement, which the majority of those consulted believe that it will arrive although now the positions are far away.

Another issue on which United We can redouble the pressure in this context of progressive measures is the housing law, which is almost a year behind schedule. This same Thursday a meeting of several parliamentary groups is scheduled, among which is Unidos Podemos itself, ERC or EH Bildu with unions and housing groups, such as the Platform for People Affected by Mortgage, which will deliver their proposal for a future law. The PSOE had no record of it, according to the sources consulted.

The minority partner of the coalition thus flirts with the idea of ​​endorsing an alternative housing law while that of the Government has not finished being agreed.

Precisely Pablo Iglesias unblocked the Budget negotiation last year when he agreed with Sánchez a commitment so that in four months a regulation that would limit rental prices would be ready.

A year later, it continues to be negotiated.

“We cannot speak of a fair recovery if we do not solve one of the main problems of our country.

It is called housing.

There are a lot of people who cannot pay the rent, "said the second vice president in the afternoon.

The Government has just closed the increase in the minimum wage of 15 euros a month after weeks of tension, but it still has very complex negotiations ahead such as the labor reform.

Díaz and Belarra made that distance clear. The Minister of Social Rights assured that it is "essential" the rise in corporate tax for large companies. The proposal involves setting a minimum rate of 15%, a measure agreed in July by 130 countries within the framework of the OECD, the technical details of which are not yet closed, and for which Podemos believes that there is sufficient consensus.

“Right now we have a situation in our country that is practically unconstitutional. There are large corporations that pay zero euros of corporation tax, while citizens contribute an income tax of 15% on average. It is evident that this does not comply with the articles of the Constitution, which says that taxes have to be progressive and fair, "said Belarra on TVE. Díaz shared a diagnosis hours later: "Today we are distant."

Meanwhile, from New York, Sánchez was much more optimistic. “I can guarantee that there will be Budgets and we will present them in a timely manner. When they meet they will see what it contains ”, he assured at a press conference before participating in the UN general assembly. When they insisted with the 15% that United We can claim, he finished: "My position is that there are Budgets and that they go to a recovery that is as fair as possible that reaches everyone." "All this context of economic recovery forces all political actors to approve Budgets if we want it to be fair," he insisted. Government sources assume that these are usual negotiating tensions, but in the end there will also be an agreement on that minimum of 15%, although it is not clear if it will be for 2022 as United We can, or for 2023 or later.

Calviño is not in favor of raising taxes now

Meanwhile, the Vice President of Economic Affairs, Nadia Calviño, made it clear again this Wednesday that she is not in favor of touching taxes this year, and believes that it is better to delay the large measures of the tax reform until the recovery and the group of experts present their report, although they defended that "adjustments" can be incorporated in the future Budget of 2022.

Meanwhile, the Government confirmed in the carousel of meetings of the Minister of the Presidency, Félix Bolaños, with six parliamentary groups that the approval of the Accounts will depend on the allies of last year.

And each one, in his own way, has been transmitting for weeks that his vote is not guaranteed.

"No one should take our affirmative vote or our abstention for granted," warned Ferran Bel, PDeCAT spokesman.

The PNV, which negotiates in its own way, alone and discreetly, played down any significance to the meeting on Wednesday. Government sources recognized that EH Bildu was one of the most vindictive. Ciudadanos, who entered the negotiations last year, this time will not even sit down to negotiate. "We do not want to serve to whitewash the agreements they already have with Esquerra and Bildu," said their spokesman, Edmundo Bal.

Nor will the Junts enter into the negotiation as long as the Government does not withdraw the audiovisual bill that the nationalists consider discriminates against the co-official languages.

"We do not give blank checks," said its spokesperson, Míriam Nogueras, who once again demanded a joint negotiation of all the Catalan independentists because "separately, you only get crumbs."

The government's promise to present a proposal to reform the financing system in November pleased Compromís.

Its spokesperson, Joan Baldoví, has been demanding progress on this issue for months and has already warned the Minister of Finance, María Jesús Montero, that if this continues the Executive would lose its vote.

With information from

Xosé Hermida

and

José Marcos

.

The challenge of reforming global taxation

The legal rate of corporation tax in Spain is 25% —30% for oil companies and banks—, but this does not mean that companies finally pay that percentage.

According to the latest

Annual Collection Report of the Tax Agency,

the effective rate paid on benefits in 2020 was only 8.3%.

And it has fallen at a dizzying rate in recent years: since 1995 it has fallen 11 points, a decline reflecting globalization and business internationalization.

In this ratio, which companies do not consider the most orthodox method to calculate how much they pay in tax, dividends received by subsidiaries abroad are included, which are already taxed in the countries where they operate at the rate established there, although in some cases it is lower than Spanish.

Creating a minimum floor would allow the legal type of tax and cash to be not so far apart, by forcing companies to pay the difference between what they pay in countries with less taxation and the minimum floor that is set.

The OECD and the G-20 have been working for years to reform global taxation, and in July they reached an agreement between more than 130 countries to set a minimum rate of at least 15% for multinationals, the technical details of which are expected to be known in October .

/ LAURA DELLE FEMMINE