Spain plans to raise taxes for rich, make lower earners pay less

By Alyssa McMurtry

OVIEDO, Spain (AA) - Spain’s treasury minister announced a significant reform to Spain’s tax policy on Thursday, which would see the wealthiest paying more taxes and millions of lower earners paying less.

“Since we began governing, we’ve been working to make our fiscal system more progressive, efficient and strong enough to support social justice and economic efficiency,” said Treasury Minister Maria Jesus Montero.

One of the major new measures is the so-called “solidarity tax” — a two-year wealth tax that would apply to those who own more than €3 million ($2.91 million) in assets. The scheme would see around 23,000 people paying on a scale of between 1.7% and 3.5% of their riches in extraordinary taxes, according to the plan.

With that wealth tax, Spain hopes to raise around €1.5 billion annually from the country’s 0.1% most affluent segment.

In parallel, those earning more than €200,000 per year would see income taxes raised by one percentage point.

The government also hopes to raise an extra €2.4 billion in two years by limiting the amount of money that large companies can offset to 50% of losses.

Meanwhile, small companies earning less than €1 million per year would see taxes decrease from 25% to 23%

Likewise, the threshold of tax exemptions and reductions for low earners would be increased from €18,000 to €21,000, which Montero said will benefit around 50% of Spanish workers. An average worker, she explained, would save around €750 per year.

Women would also save on feminine hygiene products, with the government slashing the sales tax from 10% to 4%.

The measures have been agreed upon by Spain’s progressive coalition government, but still need to be passed in parliament.

However, in the likely situation that the measures do pass, they won’t take effect until 2023.

Leader of Spain’s main opposition Alberto Nunez Feijoo called the measures “disappointing and meager,” slamming the government for failing to take faster measures to alleviate the cost-of-living crisis and not helping the middle class.