In dialogue with journalists at the UIA headquarters in Buenos Aires, the entity’s president, Daniel Funes de Rioja, announced that contacts with the technical teams of the main coalitions (Together for Change and Frente de Todos) will begin in March. , especially through its foundations. “We did the same thing in 2015 and 2019,” he said, hours after being in Congress, during the opening of sessions by the president, Alberto Fernández.
During the meetings with the candidates, the UIA will present the “White Paper”, a set of economic proposals, and from now on it will add the latest report on tax pressure. “We are aware that we are not at the time to request a tax reduction, there is an expense that must be reduced, but that is to be discussed at another table,” said Abeledo, a tax expert and one of the authors of the report.
Although the aspiration of the UIA is that of a tax reform, Abeledo explained: “We do not believe that it is the moment, because time, analysis, specialists are needed, the private sector must be seated at a large table. It is time to apply specific rules to improve the situation, at least in our sector”, he added. Along the same lines, Funes de Rioja assured: “They say that the Argentine business community is closed, level the field and see who plays with whom, because today it is completely uneven.” In addition, the lawyer was critical of the popular economy: “There is a false belief in tax equity, and a tolerance for a popular economy without papers, with that no one develops, at most they survive.”
When asked by this newspaper about how tax changes would be applied with a horizon signed with the IMF for fiscal balance, the UIA assured that the measures that could be taken without carrying out a tax reform have no fiscal cost. “Nothing is going to stop collecting because we are talking about the marginal collection that would come from new activities, greater investment and formalization,” said Abeledo.
Among the proposals, the two “workhorses” that the UIA will carry are, on the one hand, tax simplification, since they explained that seven taxes account for 90% of the collection, and at the same time a bill of incentives for industrial investments , with incentives such as accelerated amortization of investments, interest reduction when investing with own capital, free availability of tax credit, which are based on the incrementality of the investments. “We don’t want to complain, but to promote a change that Argentina could make,” said Funes de Rioja.
The president of the UIA, who in turn heads the chamber of the Copal food companies, explained that the dissemination of the report on the tax burden on March 1 seeks to be a “message to Congress”, since that is where any tax reform passes. . When asked by this newspaper about the paralysis of Congress, Funes de Rioja stated: “The denial of the very function that has to be exercised implies a very large vacuum, legislators have to affirm their role, let’s recover parliament because it comes first that suppress authoritarian governments.
Tax pressure
The study on tax pressure was carried out based on a comparison with 30 countries, both in Latin America and the OECD, which represent 86% of world GDP. The focus was on 7 taxes. In national terms, Argentina leads the ranking in corporate earnings, taxes on debits and credits, and wealth tax, while it is in fourth place in the case of VAT. Regarding the provincial and municipal, Argentina leads, in the cases of gross income, municipal taxes and tax on stamps.
Argentina leads the tenth place, out of 30 countries, but the first when the weighting for evasion is added, using an ILO informal work indicator. “Argentina is assimilated to the Central American countries in informality, it is a cancer for society,” said Fuentes de Rioja. In addition, he was very critical of the mayors: “The inventiveness they have is phenomenal in terms of rates, there is even internal advertising from inside the premises.”
The tax most criticized by businessmen was gross income. “Therein lies the real concern of the industry,” said Abeledo. Although by fiscal consensus it should be 1.5%, he assured that it could go up to 3.5%. The report does not include the reimbursements that the industry has nor the benefits computed in the tax expense.
Relationship with the Government
When asked by this newspaper about the criticism that Carlos Castagneto, head of the AFIP, often makes, about the fact that there are large companies that pay 3% of income tax, against 35% that a worker in a dependency relationship can pay, Abeledo replied: “It is likely, the AFIP will have the cases, but our industrial sector is very formalized, the factories do not have wheels, so it is easy to go and verify it.”
In addition, Abeledo revealed what is one of the exchanges he has with the Frente de Todos in terms of taxes: “When they say that reducing taxes does not increase collection, and destroys the social system that it finances, I don’t know what they mean by reduction of taxes, because when a tax reform was made in 2017, they immediately encountered a financial crisis and the reductions were reversed. The plane never took off, so there was no opportunity to show whether that drop generated a virtuous circle or not.”
Another major debate between the UIA and the Government has to do with the situation of the industry. “In the Government they always ask us if we recognize that we are better than in 2019. We have no problem saying so, but it must also be said that compared to 2011 we are worse,” said Funes de Rioja. Regarding the number of industrial companies, Coatz reported that in 2011 there were 58,000 signatures, while currently there are 51,700.
Source: Ambito
