The Chamber of Deputies approved in the last minutes of Thursday and sent to the Senate the bill that proposes the extension for five years of the validity of taxes, Earnings, Debits and Bank Credits, known as the Check Law, and the Monotax, Capital of the Cooperative and additional Cigarette that expire at the end of 2022, which represent 32 % of current tax revenue; as well as the specific allocations that will be affected by what is taxed for some of those items.
In the vote at largethe initiative added 129 votes in favor, since the FDT was joined by the support of the United Provinces, the Federal Interblock, the Neuquén Popular Movement; 100 against, mostly from Together for Change; 18 abstentions and nine absences.
On the other hand, when submitting the project to the vote, in particular, the extension of taxes, itself, obtained 129 votes in favor and 118 against; and the specific assignments for the use of taxes added 235 positive and 10 negative, since almost all of Together for Change accompanied in that instance.
The debate chaired by the head of the Chamber, Cecilia Moreau, began after 9:30 p.m., after the approval of the Fiscal Consensus 2022, and its treatment required only two hours since it was resolved between the different blocks to shorten the list of speakers to intervene in treatment.
The project was included in the agenda after the ruling party decided last night to ask to extend the summons to incorporate this key initiative that is being debated on the same day that the 2023 Budget designed by the Ministry of Economy headed by Sergio Massa enters, and whose collection it was already included in the forecasts of expenses and resources for the next year.
The bench of the Frente de Todos -led by Germán Martínez- decided to include this issue after making sure they had the votes to approve the extension of these taxes, since they decided to include some changes in the opinion to separate the vote on the extension from that on special allocations. as requested by opposition blocs, reported parliamentary sources.
At the beginning of the debate, the president of the Budget and Finance Commission, Carlos Heller (Frente de Todos), said that “This project that we are dealing with is neither more nor less than the solvency of the State, because on December 31 taxes that are fundamental in the distribution scheme of our tax system are due, in addition to the fact that most of these taxes are co-participation“.
“What would happen if this was not extended and we had to face a cessation of this tax, if in a possible scenario this extension were not approved, the impacts would be terrible, not only on national finances, but on those of the provinces and those of the municipalities,” he warned.
Heller specified that “the income tax, the personal property tax and the check tax” mean the total 54% of what is collected by the DGI in 2021 “and that” Income is one of the pillars of the Argentine tax system ” that “has a clear progressive character” and “represents 5 points of GDP”.
Also from the ruling party, Susana Landriscini, from Rio Negro, specified that the position of her caucus “is not technical, but political, and is related to what we have been hearing in recent times in the Budget Committee from some sectors of the opposition on the taxes and the specific assignments that are implemented”.
“These tax changes seek to improve progressivity to reduce socioeconomic inequality in Argentina and also to improve the allocation of spending on social protection,” he remarked.
For Together for Change, Luciano Laspina, from the PRO, pointed out: “We do not have an objection to these taxes that make up a large part of the financing of the Nation and provinces, and perhaps the Income Tax is the most progressive we have” .
“What we are raising is a political objection to endorsing with our vote a series of measures that this government has implemented since it took office, such as what is contemplated in the Fiscal Consensus, recently voted,”. he added.
The PRO deputy completed by saying: “we want to insist on our opinion that extends the most fundamental taxes and specific allocations, because most of them are going to finance Anses; but we ask that the rates of personal property be reversed because they have meant a setback in the collection for the exit of the country of great patrimonies”.
The radical Víctor Hugo Romero, meanwhile, justified the partial accompaniment: “We are being consistent with our responsibility. We presented a minority opinion understanding that we cannot defund the State and that much less the ANSES could not be defunded. That is why we proposed unfolding the articles, on the one hand proposing the extension of taxes and on the other hand working on the specific allocation that means the financing of retirees and other social programs”.
Deputy Alejandro ‘Topo’ Rodríguez, of the Federal Interbloc, the third force in the Chamber, pointed out: “We arrived at this instance without having a comprehensive tax reform proposal. Issues that are always said in campaigns, and that this time, they will say, for issues of the pandemic could not advance; but we are 2022 and the reform does not appear “.
“The macrismo did not address a comprehensive tax reform either. And so we once again reached an extension without contemplating, for example, the reduction of withholdings on agricultural exports; they brought us to debate about faits accomplis,” he continued.
Finally, he advanced the vote of his space: “We have a sense of responsibility and we are going to vote in favor, we are not going to leave social security or the provinces without financing, this law of extension of a law of the previous government”.
At the end of the debate, the president of the ruling bloc, Germán Martínez, highlighted: “our opinion is based on the law approved in 2017, without getting into an internal debate on each of the taxes” and expressed the unfolding of the articles to enable the aforementioned accompaniment in particular of some opposition deputies.
The initiative promoted by The Executive Power proposes the extension for five years of the Profit and Check taxes, the Monotax, cooperative capital and the additional Emergency of cigarettes, maintaining the validity until 2023 of the Fund for Education and Cooperative Promotion.
Other taxes that the Government wants to extend are the specific assignments in the VAT, such as the tax on tickets abroad provided for in Law 25,997 with which the National Tourism Fund is supported.
The initiative turned by President Alberto Fernández; the chief of staff Juan Manzur; and former minister Silvina Batakis; It is another of the key projects together with the 2023 Budget that is being designed in the portfolio led by the Minister of the Economy, Sergio Massa.
The extension of these taxes is essential for the national government because it is a set of taxes whose collection is vital to sustain the public policies of the Nation and the provinces, since most of them are shared.
This tax package was extended at the end of 2017 during the government of Mauricio Macri for a term of five years and now the Executive Branch proposes to extend it for another five years.
