The directors of Gestha, the association that brings together tax technicians, defended this Thursday in Barcelona the need to eliminate the deduction for joint taxation in personal income tax “so that Spain can meet the deficit reduction objectives demanded by the European Union” .
Within the framework of the Gestha Annual Congress, which is being held in Barcelona, ??the president of this association, Carlos Calzado, explained that the elimination of this deduction is one of the measures that the Government is considering, since the reduction of the deficit ” requires the elimination of large deductions from large taxes”, and this is the most important of the Personal Income Tax, since it affects 3.2 million declarations and has an annual cost for the public coffers of about 2,400 millions of euros. In addition, Calzado recalled, personal income tax is the tax with the highest collection, of more than 100,000 million euros.
Calzado assured that the Government “is working along this line” and recalled that this deduction was already questioned by Airef, as well as by the group of experts who published the White Paper on Tax Reform last year. “It is a measure that is in line with what most countries around us are doing,” he added, since in his opinion it discourages family members who have less income from entering the labor market.
The deduction for joint taxation, modified in 2006 after a ruling by the Constitutional Court, consists of a reduction in the tax base of 3,400 euros for married couples and 2,150 for those formed by a single parent with minor children.
The Minister of Finance and Public Function, María Jesús Montero, assured this Thursday that “there are no more expert opinions” on the elimination of the deduction. “I am not going to feed speculation that does not correspond to any proposal on the table.” Instead, Calzado assumed that the deduction “will be adjusted” and defended a “transitional period” for its gradual elimination to modulate the impact it will have on affected taxpayers.
Gestha defended that to “return to a certain fiscal discipline” the Government must also reverse the reductions in taxes on electricity. “These are measures that reduce collection by 10,000 million euros,” Calzado recalled, although he acknowledged that eliminating them “will have an impact on inflation,” which also impacts public finances through increases in public salaries and pensions. .
The president of the Treasury technicians defended, as an alternative to these reductions, direct aid to “the most disadvantaged families”, which would help them more than the current general reduction with a lower cost for the public coffers.
Calzado defended the need for the major parties to reach a “state pact” to undertake the reform of the tax system “to put an end to the patches” with which taxation has been regulated. “The Lagares report, in 2012, tried it, but only a small reform was made.”
The situation, in his opinion, has worsened due to “fiscal competition” between the autonomous communities and he regretted that the line of tax reduction advocated by the PP goes against those defended by organizations such as the IMF, or even the tax agencies. risk rating, which forced UK Prime Minister Liz Truss to withdraw her tax cut package.
Calzado also defended the “fiscal co-responsibility” of the autonomous communities, which he recalled is established in the Constitution and their ability to establish their own taxes, as Catalonia has done, to increase public services. “In any case they collect very low figures – he recalled – and most of their income continues to come from taxes transferred by the central administration.”
