With a strong fiscal deficit as the starting point of the current national government, and with the inevitable decision to start a path of austerity – and reduction – in public spending, which adds to the overcoming of the monetary issue and the end of the plague of inflation , the main phrase of “there’s no money” he ascertained “tax defects“explore some provinces and municipalities.
The “there is no money” decreed by President Javier Milei implied the cessation of discretionary transfers of funds from the Nation to the provinces to cover their fiscal deficits, a situation that put them in financial peril due to their lack of initiative in reducing government spending. This too has a no less important precedent, namely the almost elimination of the income tax on employees and pensioners by the previous government, which implied a Trillion dollar a year tax holewith serious damage to provincial revenues because it is a shared tax.
What does Mrs. Rosa do when there is no money? Reduce expenses.
The vicious practice of many provincial and municipal tax administrations, directed by their governor or mayor, is contrary to all logic – and to the crisis we are going through – and consists in Raise taxes, growing tax pressure on taxpayers saturated with taxes, who also see their daily costs (life, business, etc.) increase. That’s why we say it They go “zoo hunting”.
As far as the Municipalities are concerned, the defects mainly consist of increase rates that they charge or in creating new ones. Municipal taxes should reward a public service rendered by the municipality to each individual, but this is not the case. Therefore, in truth, municipalities create taxes disguised as taxes, which constitutes a flagrant transgression of the limits imposed by the municipal tax regime.
Some emblematic cases They correspond to the municipalities of the province of Buenos Aires. Blue It has a tariff for essential services, covering each hectare of land with the equivalent of a fraction or a liter of diesel (depending on whether it is agricultural, livestock or mixed land). It intends to load between 0.5 and 1 liter, depending on the destination of the field. According to some estimates, the Municipality would collect a total of almost 490,000 liters per month. What specific service is provided? There are already lawsuits about this.
Bolivar and Daireaux Sign in road toll increases of between 400% and 500%. Now the value of the tax will be determined by an index composed not only of the price of meat, but also of that of diesel.
In Pehuajo The possibility of creating a tax for the use of agrochemicals went viral, but then the municipality backed down.
In the province, voracity is the order of the day, to the point of becoming perversity in some cases.
THE Province of Buenos Aires it’s very mediated these days by the imposed which covers properties of all types (urban and rural). Under the tax law for fiscal year 2024, increases range from 140 to 200%. However, In some cases there is no limit to the increasewhich is why some rural producers have said the new property tax represents an increase of more than 400% over last year.
Buenos Aires has also made headlines when it comes to gross income tax. The tax law authorized the Collection Agency (ARBA) to collect an “additional advance” equivalent to four times the tax determined last October. The rules established as contributors of said advance: “big business” (as if it were an incentive), give a few days to enter the sidereal amounts and without the possibility of requesting a reduction due to a change in the company situation. The province was pursuing a collection of nearly 16,000 million pesos.
This advance, more than a deposit, turns out to be a “forced loan”, a taxpayer loan to the government that pays no interest, which depreciates in the face of inflation and forces those affected to face the financial costs of unavailability of their business capital. Some companies will take more than two years to absorb the balance for this perversity.
The “further advance” once again puts the voracity of “collecting” on the table – it actually is put the state in debt without the necessary legal procedures – generating favorable balances.
But there is a detail: the “extraordinary” or “additional” advances highlight a perverse attitude on the part of governments and tax administrators. With this mechanism, taxpayers’ ability to defend themselves is weakened affected because, while implying manifest unconstitutionality, they make the jurisdiction of the case more difficult e generate revenue much quicker and easier than with a law which must be approved by the legislator. Here only a general resolution of the Financial Administration (AFIP, ARBA, etc.) is necessary.
Favorable balances, in this inflationary context, imply serious damage for taxpayers and businesses: capital exposed to inflation “melts” like ice cream in the summer sun.
So the roles are reversed: The Treasury is indebted to taxpayers, the taxpayer is a creditor of the Treasury. The natural situation is the opposite.
Even if a taxpayer can ask for a refund – so says the law – the taxpayer’s position is always the weakest. The Treasury has a whole apparatus for collecting: in case of non-payment, it collects through judicial proceedings, with compensatory and punitive interest, and it can take as little as 60 days to obtain the funds.
The taxpayer can request a refund, subject to verification, The interest rate paid by the state is about half of what it charges when the taxpayer falls behindand he doesn’t want to delay three, four, five years. There are no penalties for officials’ delay in returning money to taxpayers.
There is no doubt, we are faced with clear fiscal perversity, the treatment taxpayers receive is truly immoral.
On the one hand, the Administration requires taxpayers to respect the law, but at the same time tramples on the constitutional rights of those who are required to pay taxes and evades the legal obligations applicable to it, violating the basic constitutional principles of taxation . . .
Many provinces and municipalities may be labeled with black octagons warning of “excess taxes.” Taxes always increase, but they are never enough. For what purpose are taxes collected? For citizens or for politics? Buy votes by giving away bicycles, as some municipalities have done? Or give away intimate gels, or trips for graduates, as the province of Buenos Aires did?
There is talk these days of a sort of “tax rebellion” in the province of Buenos Aires. Stopping paying taxes is a very personal choice, but in some cases you can’t choose, because there is no way to pay.
Yes, it is important to keep in mind that each Tax Administration has broad powers to demand the payment of taxes, the amount to be paid for late payment interest becomes significantly more expensive, in addition to the consequences on the financial management of any company that an embargo can bring.
But it is one thing to rebel, it is another to exercise the rights that each taxpayer is entitled to, even if they are able to do so. sue the state in the case of a tax claim that appears unconstitutional.
At this point it is of vital importance that as citizens we demand from our governments effectiveness, efficiency and – above all – transparency in the management of the financial resources of the State.
Taxes do not exist to finance political waste, but to cover citizens’ needs for public goods and services, goods and services that must be of high quality.
“Never again” to the waste of politics with our taxes!
César R. Litvin is partner and managing director and Martín R. Caranta is partner of the Lisicki Litvin y Asoc firm.
Source: Clarin
