The Finance Commission of the Congress of Deputies, within which “the tax package” must be debated before the 2025 General State Budgets (PGE), will not be held this week. After being postponed on Monday, this Thursday it was postponed again to next Monday, November 18. The government is seeking to buy time to continue negotiations on tax changes in the face of “cross vetoes” between inauguration partners.
The key to the conflict lies in the fact that the PSOE is stuck between its agreements with the PNV and Junts and the demands of its left-wing partners. The main point of conflict is the special tax on energy companies which expires at the end of the year and which the Finance Ministry had agreed to reverse with nationalist and conservative forces. But it is precisely this tax that Sumar and especially ERC, EH Bildu and Podemos want to maintain at all costs.
Faced with this blockage, the Popular Party (PP) proposed to support this Thursday at the Finance Commission the bill which transposes into Spanish legislation a new minimum tax of 15% for multinational companies, if new taxes like those that the PSOE and its partners negotiated. These new taxes are intended to be included as amendments to this bill which will have to be approved during a plenary session of Congress.
The main threat of “crossed vetoes” between government partners goes beyond “the reform or the tax package”. If this does not materialize, next year’s budgets as well as the next disbursements of European funds from the recovery plan are threatened.
