Feijóo proposes a massive tax cut without detailing figures or how it would affect state income

The president of the PP, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, announced this Wednesday some more details of the economic plan that he said he had ready before Easter, but of which he has not yet offered specific figures on how much savings it would mean for the Spanish, either by reducing expense or fiscal pressure. In a speech before the National Executive Committee, Feijóo has reiterated the mantra that he has repeated since he assumed the leadership of the opposition: the Government "squeezes" the citizens and "lives above the possibilities" of Spain. As an alternative, he has claimed to have a four-point plan, although he has only "specified in a generic way" the fiscal part. He didn't break them down on Tuesday either. in his round of meetings with the social agents.

Feijóo: quick round with the social agents to avoid the photo with Abascal

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Feijóo has proposed a reduction of three taxes: personal income tax, companies and VAT. The bulk of the plan focuses on Income Tax, which taxes people's income. The president of the PP has proposed "acting on medium and low incomes", which he has placed at "income less than 40,000 euros". The idea of ​​the PP is "to deflate the rate in the first three sections" of a tax that, he has denounced, "has not been updated since 2008." A period in which "the IPC has risen 25%", he has pointed out.

What Feijóo has not said is that, in that period of time, who spent the most years at the head of the Government was Mariano Rajoy, whom he has pointed to as a benchmark for his policies since he took the step to replace the ousted Pablo Casado at the head of the P.P. And that the idea of ​​"deflating" the CPI in Income is something that his party has rejected when it was a proposal from another government.

Feijóo has not detailed in his speech how much the Spaniards affected by the measure would stop paying. Nor how much the State would stop entering. Nor has he done so with the second proposal regarding personal income tax: to create a "new figure in the personal and family minimums specifically and temporarily for medium and low incomes." Thirdly, the PP is committed to making an "adjustment to the withholdings" that is made "to Spanish families every month" retroactively to January 1, without explaining what it means by "family" or how much it would be. that adjustment, which prevents calculating the impact of the measure, both for citizens and for the State.

The president of the PP has also asked that "a negative tax of 200 or 300 euros be put in place for people who receive salaries below the threshold that does not require them to file an Income Tax return." The Minister of Social Rights, Ione Belarra, already raised weeks ago a direct aid of 300 euros due to the increase in the energy cost allocated to family units that do not earn more than 70,000 euros as a whole.

Feijóo has also proposed reductions in the VAT paid by companies and the self-employed, although in this case he has not provided impact forecast figures either. The PP is committed to "reducing taxation by modules and the special regime" to the "particularly affected sectors" by the crisis: "transport, industry, agriculture, livestock." In addition, he has demanded an "immediate reduction in VAT on energy and gas", a measure that, he has assured, "Europe accepts". Once again, Feijóo has concealed a fact: it was Rajoy who raised this VAT from 10% to 21% with the excuse of fighting the crisis, although later he refused to reduce it again. It was the current Government of the PSOE and United We Can who returned it to 10% when the price escalation began, in June last year.

Regarding Corporate Tax, Feijóo has indicated in a general way that he wants to give companies "freedom to amortize investments in energy efficiency". Again, without providing economic figures in this regard.

Negotiate, but only with the PSOE

Feijóo has boasted, as he usually does, of the past of the PP at the head of the Government. “We know how to manage the economy, that is to say, taxes, and we also take care of public services”, he assured at the beginning of his intervention, despite the fact that his referent, Mariano Rajoy, rose during his mandate a good part of the tributes, such as personal income tax or VAT.

The Galician leader has pointed out that "Spain has a great weakness, that of its Government", despite the fact that since 2019 all the Executives that have declined due to internal crises were chaired by the PP: Madrid, Castilla y León, and Murcia. The president of the PP has pointed to the Government of Pedro Sánchez for having "accustomed to living with a runaway deficit" that has been estimated at "200,000 million in two years", although he has ignored that a very good part of that amount has been destined to alleviate the effects of the pandemic caused by the coronavirus.

In addition, he has accused the coalition government of having caused the European Union to issue joint public debt for the first time: “It has become accustomed to living on the hope that we can always count on the rescue of Europe through the European public debt. to solve the problems of some countries, especially the solvency problems of Spain”.

"We are not going to give up," he said. “We could reduce our role to criticism and we would do more than the government. Cross our arms and wait for our turn”, he added, to explain that his “responsibility is to contribute, add and build” because “there is no one in Spain who can do nothing”.

“We are in a position to share a government plan that includes temporary interventions and immediate application, short-term measures and also medium and long-term reforms. The Spaniards do not have a minute to lose”, Feijóo has stated, who has succinctly presented the epigraphs of that “plan”, without going beyond the epigraphs except in the fiscal part already outlined: “rationalize bureaucratic spending, which is excessive and unjustifiable"; “redesign of European funds so that the self-employed and SMEs are direct actors in direct execution”; and "structural reforms to encourage economic activity and consolidate healthy and future growth."

After meeting with Pedro Sánchez, Alberto Núñez Feijóo undertook to submit his plan to the Government. Today he has reiterated that he wants to "debate this project immediately with the current government", although he has ignored that the Executive is a coalition government and has left United We Can out. “It seems reasonable that the two big parties [en referencia al PP y al PSOE] can share proposals in a critical situation”, he settled.