Even if he is not at the forefront of the news (busy with the consequences of DANA and tax reform), The Government and the Generalitat maintain their intention that Catalonia has its own tax agreementa measure that continues to spark protests. They were added Lake Santiagoone of gurus economy of Yolanda Díaz, second vice-president of the government and minister of Labor.
In an article published in the journal FuncasLago denounces the Catalan concert and warns of the risks posed by the sole financing of Catalonia. From his point of view, “would reduce the response capacity of the Central Administration” in the face of systemic crises like the Covid pandemic or DANA itselfdue to the loss of collection by the State, and would “fragment tax policy”.
The lack of finalization of the agreement concluded between the PSC and the ERC regarding the concert, “it is impossible to determine precisely“the effects of the initiative, indicates the economist, whose book Budgetary policy: pending missions It was presented by Yolanda Díaz herself in 2021.
However, it is clear that there would be a greater transfer of resources to the Catalan treasury. “No reform to date would have had such an intense impact on the relative position of an autonomous community“.
Lago also warns that there would be a “deterioration of the credit rating of Spanish sovereign debt“It would also have an impact, nothing less, on what we might consider tax justice.
“The transfer of 100% of personal income tax”, which is provided for in the agreement between PSC and ERC, “is unprecedented in the federal reference countries of the OECD. This solution would limit the ability to define the progressivity of the Spanish tax system from a global perspective.“, define common distribution criteria, implement measures applied equally to the entire population and deal with asymmetric crises on the autonomous map.”
In addition, the control of tax fraud would worsen (based on the fact that “the experience of articulation of provincial treasuries with the Tax Administration is far from optimal) and the fraud itself could increase in the case of corporate tax.
Yolanda Díaz, during the presentation of the book by Santiago Lago (right of the image), in La Coruña.
Finally, Lago warns that if the essence of the agreement prospers “Intense incentives would be created to encourage other communities to request its extension“, notably in Madrid and the Balearic Islands. And if this were to happen, there would be “a reduction in the fiscal capacity of the central administration”.
Lago, professor of applied economics at the University of Vigo and expert with entities such as the World Bank and the OECD, was also part of the commission for the autonomous reform of 2017 and was among the experts selected by the Ministry of Finance for reform. . tax from two years ago.
This trusted economist of Yolanda Díaz (who was proposed by Sumar to become director of the Bank of Spain) is also the brother of one of the right-hand men of the second vice-president and manager of Sumar: Manuel Lago, former advisor to the minister and now MP in Congress (in addition to one of the strong men of Díaz’s party).
He is not the first left-wing figure to criticize the tax agreement in Catalonia and to revolt against it. Carlos Martin Urrizaeconomist and economic spokesperson for the party in Congress, criticized the measure, warning that it “endangers the fiscal autonomy of the state.”
