BE defends the taxation of fortunes exceeding three million euros and the creation of an “Elon Musk” tax to tax large digital services companies, within the framework of the budget discussion.
These proposals were presented by the party coordinator, Mariana Mortágua, at a press conference, at the national headquarters of the BE, in Lisbon, with the objective of making the Portuguese tax system “fairer”.
One of the initiatives aims to create a wealth tax of more than three million euros, the “equivalent of 3,500 national minimum wages.” To arrive at this value, all the assets in question are accounted for, including “real estate, financial holdings or crypto assets“.
“It is not a tax on the general population, it is a tax on the minority of minorities of minorities who own most of the wealth and which contributes to an economy of inequalities. It is a small contribution”, highlighted Mariana Mortágua.
The rate to apply between three and five million euros would be 1.7%, between five and 10 million there would be a rate of 2.1%, and from 10 million the rate would be 3.5%.
Mortágua highlighted that there is no risk of double taxation, since it is possible to deduct the additional IMI for luxury real estate, and “there is also a cap that means that, when added to this tax with the IRS, it cannot be exceeded any more. of 60% of income.”
In addition, BE will also advance the creation of a tax it calls the “Elon Musk tax”, coined in honor of the magnate and owner of the social network ‘X’, formerly Twitter.
“Elon Musk’s tax has one purpose, which is to tax digital services companies that use the data that each of us as users provides to sell and monetize through advertising”, he explained, adding that this tax would apply to companies that provide digital services with a turnover of more than 750 million euros, consisting of a rate of 3% on total income from digital services.
Mariana Mortágua also highlighted that “Portugal has an excessive and disproportionate burden of indirect taxes, and in particular VAT”, a “regressive” tax that affects the poorest people the most and who need to consume and who spend a greater part of their income on these taxes.”
“And Portugal not only has a very large burden of indirect taxes, but the average of indirect taxes in total tax revenue is higher in Portugal than the average of OECD countries,” he said.
In this context, the blockers will propose several changes to the VAT regime, namely, transversally reducing the current minimum rate from 6% to 5% and the average rate from 13 to 12%.
BE wants telecommunications, electricity and gas to move to the reduced rate, which they propose at 5%, and, on the contrary, they propose the maximum rate of 23% for hotels and local accommodation.
The party wants to change the way in which the IMT is counted and distributed, highlighting that currently the income from this tax is proportional to the sale price of the home and “each municipality keeps this income.”
“The higher the housing prices in a given municipality, the higher the income that municipality will have. What we propose is that instead of having a direct relationship, these IMT income can be mutualized: a fund is created that is then distributed among all municipalities in a more balanced way, breaking the direct link that exists between speculation and income. local prosecutors. authorities,” he explained.
The bloc group will also insist that the specific IRS deduction increase from the current 4,104 euros to 4,810 euros.
Source: Observadora
