Argentina in the world | Page 12

On the planet besieged by the virus, the increase in inequalities does not stop. The magazine’s 2020 billionaire ranking was recently released Forbes. The data shows that there are 660 people in the world who have joined the select billionaire club, which reaches 2,755. At the other extreme, according to the World Bank, some 100 million people are said to have entered a situation of extreme poverty. According to the report of Forbes, the combined fortunes total about $ 13.1 trillion at the end of 2020, up from $ 8 trillion a year ago, a 63.8% increase in wealth measured in dollars.

In this context, there is a growing debate around the world about the need to create taxes on wealth and profitsand on the urgency of implementing policies against inequalities. There are two converging processes: on the one hand, the decision to limit poverty, indigence and lack of health care, among others; on the other hand, to obtain resources to achieve these objectives through progressive taxes.

In the week that passed, Joe biden, the President of the United States, distributed the first 150 million pandemic relief program checks. In total, about $ 372 billion, according to the Treasury Department. At the same time, Biden introduced tax reform to raise $ 2.5 trillion with the aim of increasing tax revenue over the next 15 years.

The tax policy of the new Democratic administration rests on three pillars. The first consists of corporate tax increase from the current 21%, the result of Donald Trump’s tax reform in 2017, to 28%. That’s a seven percentage point hike that, however, still leaves that tax below the 35 percent that was in effect before the reform led by the former Republican president. The second is the adoption of regulatory measures for large multinational companies and technology emporiums who pay their taxes in other low tax countries. The third is the end of subsidies to fossil energy companies and its replacement with incentives for clean energy production.

Biden said, in relation to this global problem, that “it is not acceptable that 91 percent of the top 500 companies in the country did not pay any federal taxes in 2019.”

In the same perspective, Germany and France have endorsed the initiative of the Secretary of the Treasury of the United States, Janet Yellen, to design a global minimum tax on corporations. German Finance Minister Olaf Scholz said: “I am very encouraged that this corporate tax initiative will allow us to end the global race to lower taxes.” And he added that this global deal should include new rules that establish the means to tax cross-border companies from digital giants. In the same vein, French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said: “We now have a global agreement on international taxes at hand. We must seize this historic opportunity. “

Also this week the International Monetary Fund proposed a temporary tax on high incomes and multinationals. This tax, which some are beginning to call the solidarity tax, aims to rebalance the deficit and debt levels of the countries most affected by the health crisis. The head of the Fund’s finance department, Vitor Gaspar, told the Spanish newspaper The country: “The covid has worsened inequalities (…) This is why we are calling for redistribution policies and universal access to health, education and social security. Most countries have relatively low tax-to-GDP ratios and we believe they need to increase them to finance social spending. There may be room for increased taxes, especially in the case of the more progressive. The most promising options we see are through an additional burden on personal tax [más ricas] or by one on the company’s surplus profits ”.

For her part, the Managing Director of the IMF, Kristalina Georgieva, reopened a debate that seemed closed: the possibility of lower interest rates for indebted countries. The official said that “in the proposal that the minister Martin guzman fact regarding interest, we must recognize two things. On the one hand, it evokes these points when the Fund is ready to proceed with its periodic review of charges. It is time to discuss these things. “But he clarified that on the other hand” there is a reason the IMF has placed these fees in the past and that is to create an incentive for countries to leave the programs as soon as possible. “

At the G-20 meeting, Argentina and Mexico, supported by Brazil and others, presented a plan to reform the distribution of the 650 billion dollars in drawing rights that the IMF is preparing to allocate. Until now, these resources have been distributed in proportion to the capital invested by each of the member countries of the international organization. The reform bill proposes that countries that need it most receive more, including those with medium development, such as Argentina, Mexico, Brazil and Colombia, among others. 62 percent of the world’s people living in poverty live there.

Today, initiatives are being debated at a global level that seemed unthinkable before the pandemic. The Minister of the Economy, Martín Guzmán, has a big role in these discussions which aim to change the role of international credit organizations.

At the same time, our country is locally implementing many of the changes that are being debated around the world. the Solidarity and extraordinary contribution of great fortunes is one of those initiatives. The sanction of the modification of Income tax to human beings is another. At the same time, we are moving forward with the discussion on corporate tax, with which we will continue to increase fiscal progressivity.

Argentina, far from being isolated from the world, is increasingly integrated into major global debates and initiatives. Argentina is rebuilding itself in a world which is rebuilding itself.

* Carlos Heller is national deputy of the Frente de Todos and president of the Solidarity Party.