The PP distances itself from the fiasco of the British tax plan, despite the fact that its electoral program includes the same reduction for high incomes

The Deputy Secretary of Economy of the PP, Juan Bravo, during the press conference offered this Monday at the party's headquarters, in Madrid. Sergio Pérez (EFE)

In the cultural battle for the tax model waged in Spain by the progressive government and the right-wing opposition, the left received a boost for its positions on Monday.

The news that the British prime minister is reversing her tax cut for high incomes forced by the markets has been received with joy among progressives, while the conservatives have chosen to distance themselves from Liz Truss's plan.

Some popular, such as the president of the Community of Madrid, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, had enthusiastically celebrated his massive tax reduction.

The unchecking of the PP also collides with its electoral program for the last general elections - which is still in force, although it was prepared by the previous leadership of Pablo Casado -,

which includes exactly the measure that the British prime minister has had to renege on: a reduction in personal income tax for high income earners, leaving the maximum rate at 40% (now it is at a minimum of 45% and at 50% in several communities).

After the rectification of Truss, the PP has chosen to try to mark distances with the British model, but reaffirming itself in the tax reductions, including the tribute to Heritage that the popular governments of Madrid and Andalusia have suppressed.

Alberto Núñez Feijóo has also ignored his colleagues from the United Kingdom and in his place has put Portugal as an example, with a Social Democratic government and with a greater fiscal pressure than that of Spain.

After the rectification of Truss, the PP has chosen to try to mark distances with the British model, but reaffirming itself in the tax reductions, including the tribute to Heritage that the popular governments of Madrid and Andalusia have suppressed.

Alberto Núñez Feijóo has also ignored his colleagues from the United Kingdom and in his place has put Portugal as an example, with a Social Democratic government and with a greater fiscal pressure than that of Spain.

After the rectification of Truss, the PP has chosen to try to mark distances with the British model, but reaffirming itself in the tax reductions, including the tribute to Heritage that the popular governments of Madrid and Andalusia have suppressed.

Alberto Núñez Feijóo has also ignored his colleagues from the United Kingdom and in his place has put Portugal as an example, with a Social Democratic government and with a greater fiscal pressure than that of Spain.

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Overwhelming support for the latest government measures, including the energy tax

The person in charge of Economy of the PP, Juan Bravo, has highlighted the differences between the British fiscal plan and his own and has tried to link the fiasco of the British prime minister with the fact that he had not foreseen, in parallel to his tax reduction, a sharp reduction in public spending.

“The situation in the United Kingdom is very specific”, the prosecutor defended, “and we have to study what they told the Government, which is that they did not see any drop in public spending, which we were asking for.

It is not so much the problem of lowering taxes or not, but that they did not see any gesture in saving that amount, ”he said at a press conference at the PP headquarters.

However, the British Government has not had to rectify this alone,

Bravo has insisted that Britain's tax plan is different from that of the PP, despite the fact that there are parallels between the two, in particular in the reduction to high incomes, and an exact similarity compared to the PP electoral program in 2019 "What we are proposing is different from what the United Kingdom is proposing, especially in the part of public savings," stressed the popular leader, who nevertheless insists that lowering taxes is the PP's policy.

"Our policy is, as long as the public accounts allow it and the public situation allows it, to lower taxes," he emphasized.

The PP's electoral program for the 2019 general elections sounds almost identical to the star measures of the British prime minister's plan, which she has had to rectify after the collapse of the pound.

The PP document states in its point 16: “We will approve a tax reduction of personal income tax that will affect all taxpayers.

The maximum rate will be below 40%”.

The British Government's plan included the abolition of the maximum rate of 45% of personal income tax for the highest incomes (taxpayers who earn more than 170,000 euros per year), until today it has taken a 180-degree turn.

The Deputy Secretary of Economy of the PP has not responded this Monday at a press conference to the question of whether the PP continued to defend this tax reduction that appears in its program, which PP sources point out that it was not designed by the current president of the party,

The electoral proposals of the PP and the plan of the British Prime Minister also coincide in a strong tax reduction for companies.

In the text of the popular ones it is read in point 17: "We will promote a reduction of the Corporation Tax, placing the maximum rate below 20%".

The general rate is 25%, although the numerous deductions tend to lower it considerably.

Truss, for his part, has reestablished the maximum rate of corporate tax at 19%, compared to 25% in which it was located.

Feijóo's PP plan —presented to the Government in a document last April and which PP sources indicate that the current leadership continues to subscribe to— omits that proposal, but it would also imply a temporary tax cut worth between 7,500 and 10,000 millions;

an adjustment of bureaucratic and political spending, and the use of 4,900 million European funds to articulate tax incentives, either as aid to companies in partnerships or as a reduction in personal income tax.

Although the popular ones focus on tax reductions for medium and low incomes, the main similarity with the Truss plan is in the measure announced this September by several PP governments, the suppression or reduction of the Wealth Tax, which is applied as a rule general for wealth of more than 700,000 euros without counting on the habitual residence.

Bravo has defended that this initiative is designed to "not help people who can contribute to our country leave us".

The popular leader, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, has also defended this Monday the abolition of the Wealth Tax with a new argument, that supposedly Spain is going to lose large fortunes who are going to choose to reside fiscally in Portugal because they do not have that tribute.

“What do partners do?”

"What is worrying, what are the partners doing?" Feijóo asked himself rhetorically about Sánchez's social-democratic peers in Europe, such as Portugal.

“Partners lower taxes.

And I have seen what the Portuguese partners do.

The Portuguese partners do not have Inheritance, Donations or Patrimony.

When we now send a message to the patrimonies that are now going to start paying, what are we saying?

We are somehow pushing investments to the other side.”

Feijóo uses Portugal as an example to wear down Sánchez, but avoids talking about his conservative peers in Europe, such as Great Britain, forced this Monday to make a historic rectification of its fiscal plan.

The Portuguese country, however, has a higher fiscal pressure than the Spanish, of 37.6% of GDP compared to 37.5% of Spain, according to Eurostat;

The PP is convinced, in any case, that it is winning the cultural battle for taxes on the Government, and continues to focus its strategy on this issue.

Feijóo has indicated this Monday as "very old" the speech of the socialist president on the fiscal model.

"Going back to talking about rich and poor again, pointing out companies as responsible, that is no longer done in the European Union," he criticized.

The popular leader defends the companies — he voted against the tax on electricity and banking — although the poll was 40dB.

for EL PAÍS this Monday reveals that up to 55% of PP voters agree with the tax on energy companies.

The Portuguese "solidarity tax"

Tereixa Constenla

Portugal does not have a Patrimony tribute, but its richest citizens pay considerably more than their Spanish colleagues in income tax.

In the Portuguese equivalent to personal income tax, a "solidarity rate" is charged to all people who earn more than 80,000 euros a year.

If the income is below 250,000 euros, 2.5% is applied, while if it is above, 5% is taxed.

This contribution of the richest is added to the tax that corresponds to pay in the liquidation.

As in Spain, the tax is progressive, but both its minimums and maximums are much higher.

The highest bracket is taxed at 48%, above the British 45% that the new British Prime Minister Liz Truss has tried to eliminate without success.

The minimum bracket in Portugal is 14.50%.

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