Rebellion Against Looming Spanish VAT Hike
March 11th, 2010
The regional vice president and spokesman of the autonomous region of Madrid, Ignacio Gonzalez, said today that he is willing to give up one hundred percent of the income received from the two percent rise in VAT (up to 18%) due to come into effect in July. It was also asserted that the autonomous government will need to find an extra 36 million euros, which is not budgeted for, as a consequence of the tax increase.
There has been an escalation in the intensity of discussions revolving around the VAT hike recently, with the president of Madrid, Esperanza Aguirre, announcing a “rebellion campaign” against the tax increase yesterday. She also stressed that the Community of Madrid “also has to pay VAT, so the tax rise will cost us 36 million euros, these are funds which are not covered in our budgets, but which will have to paid, like the rest of the public, as a result of the increased tax burden. “
In response to the rebellion talk, the General Secretary of PSM-PSOE, Tomás Gómez, said that if Madrid was so against the tax increase, they should renounce 50 percent of the proceeds that they will receive.
An agitated Gonzalez declared “I told Gomez that the regional government is willing to waiver one hundred percent of the proceeds. We do not want anything from the VAT increase, we will give up everything. We want to see reduced VAT rates, because we believe it is the right thing. If Gomez is preoccupied with our extra VAT income, we are happy to renounce it all, one hundred percent.”
“Therefore, we are not going to give take a single euro that the tax hikes will bring” he continued, while stressing that there should be “a minimising of tax burdens to help stimulate economic activity and facilitate the entrepreneurs who can create jobs,” because, in his opinion, “that is what the country needs now.”
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