• Bolivian President Arce announced that his country’s tax bureau had collected twice as much as was originally estimated through the “very rich tax.”

• Arce emphasized the new tax is part of the “dismantling of neoliberalism to resume the Productive Community Social-Economic Model to get out of the crisis,” as the income generated will help to redistribute resources.

• It is also called “solidarity tax,” because it is designed to reduce inequalities in the ability to fight the coronavirus and access vaccines. 

MercoPress writes:

“Bolivian President Luis Arce announced on Tuesday his country’s tax bureau had collected twice as much as originally estimated through the “very rich tax.”

In his Twitter account, Arce explained that days before the deadline, collection exceeded 224.1 million bolivianos (more than 32 million dollars) from 203 millionaires, residents in Bolivia or abroad, with assets over 30 million bolivianos (almost 4.3 million dollars).

Arce underscored the new tax is part of the “dismantling of neoliberalism to resume the Productive Community Social-Economic Model to get out of the crisis,” as the income generated will contribute to the redistribution of resources.

This tax is similar to one already enacted in Argentina and which has also been encouraged by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres a fortnight ago.

It is also called “solidarity tax,” because, as Guterres pointed out, it is designed to reduce inequalities in the ability to fight the coronavirus and access vaccines. “I urge governments to consider applying a solidarity or wealth tax to those who benefited during the pandemic, to reduce extreme inequalities,” Guterres had said.

The United States is also eyeing such a measure. With a fiscal deficit forecast at 15% of GDP by the end of 2021, the administration of President Joseph Biden is reportedly considering similar taxation to cover current deficits plus other costs of the pandemic.

According to the inform entitled “Wealth and wealth taxation in Latin America and the Caribbean,” 41% of wealth is in the hands of 1% of the population; 3.8% of tax collection is the total contribution of the rich and 48,000 million US dollars was the increase in the fortunes of Latin American billionaires from March to July 2020…”

See full story here.

Categories: Government, International, Politics

Tags: behavioral economics, bolivia, Bolivian President Luis Arce, breaking news, democratic socialism, economic left, economic news, economics news, featured, keynesian economics, left media, leftism, leftist economic news, leftist media outlet, leftist news, news, progressive, progressive economic news, progressive media, progressive media outlet, progressive movement, progressive news, progressive news sites, socialism, solidarity tax, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, wealth tax