The Government increases the pace of the tuning fork to respond to the fiscal battle that Juanma Moreno Bonilla has initiated in Andalusia with the abolition of the Wealth Tax and that different autonomous governments of the PP are reinforcing in a cascade. In full design of the future state tax on large fortunes, the Minister of Finance, María Jesús Montero, focuses on Madrid and the "capital effect" that harms other territories.
Ruled out the reform of regional financing this legislature, which should entail the harmonization of transferred taxes, the Sánchez Executive is now focusing on the new rate that the Ministry of Finance is preparing to come into force at the beginning of next year. It will be temporary and will cause, according to government sources, that "it will be paid for wealth throughout Spain." It seeks, therefore, to plug the hole through which the PP autonomies are slipping; the last one, Galicia when announcing a bonus of up to 50% of Patrimony.
With the political line set, Minister Montero has once again attacked this Friday against this massive tax cut caused, in her opinion, by the aforementioned "capital effect" and the "radial design of the country" that causes a greater "concentration of income and assets in Madrid”. This entails "greater collection" in the Community of Madrid that leads their governments to reduce some taxes. This, according to Montero, generates "a situation of fiscal dumping."
"There are autonomous communities that are at a competitive disadvantage," Montero warned. The main victim, Catalonia, where there are 82,465 declarants of Patrimony. Regarding Moreno Bonilla's decision to abolish this tax, the Minister of Finance has indicated that a dangerous "spiral" is taking place. She has recalled that the Andalusian government "permanently" demands Sánchez "an increase in financial resources".
Montero has also highlighted that the decisions of the PP governments contrast with European fiscal policy because the Commission is trying "that there are no tax havens to avoid that feeling of injustice and lack of redistribution."
“Madrid harms others, because Madrid creates a mental scheme and others buy it”, he pointed out. For Montero, the ideal would be to “cooperate” and “not compete”.
The also deputy general secretary of the PSOE has asked the leader of the opposition, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, to define "what is the position regarding Patrimony". The president of the PP has spoken precisely this Friday of the tax dispute stating that "it is about attracting heritage to Spain, not moving it away from other countries".
Sánchez, for his part, has affirmed from Valencia that, "in the face of the fiscal competition" that the PP is applying, "the important thing is to preserve the welfare state" because it is "what unites societies and defends us against adversity" . For the President of the Government "where there were amnesties and fiscal gifts", in the coming months there will be "reforms that guarantee that those who have more, contribute more" and a "redistribution of effort".
The PNV has not liked the latest fiscal initiatives of the Government. In fact, the Treasury is already negotiating the modification of the tax on energy and banking in parliamentary process to adapt it to the Basque Agreement. The Treasury did not inform the party chaired by Andoni Ortuzar of the proposals and that, according to training sources, is a violation of the investiture agreement signed on December 30, 2019. In that text it was contemplated that the Government would consult with the PNV any initiative prosecutor that he raised before the Cortes Generales.
From the Basque party they point out that the new tax on large fortunes generates "doubts" about how it will be configured with the Patrimony rate. In Euskadi there are 16,000 declarations of Patrimony that generate a collection of about 150 million euros a year.
