PS Highlights Promise of Tax Relief If Economic Forecasts Confirm

PS stressed this Friday that the government will implement tax breaks starting with the 2024 budget and around two billion euros over the next four years, if macroeconomic forecasts are confirmed.

This position was put forward by former Minister of Labor and current Deputy PS Miguel Cabrita in the Assembly of the Republic during the discussion of the PCP project aimed at reducing taxes on workers and “taxing efficiently” the profits made by economic groups.

In his speech, Miguel Cabrita defended the thesis that since the first chief executive led by António Costa, there has been no increase in taxes on workers in Portugal and rejected the idea that Portugal is above the European average in terms of tax burden.

“Whatever it costs right, Portugal remains with a tax burden below the European Union – not above, as they repeat over and over again,” he said.

Miguel Cabrita also noted that if Portugal’s current economic growth trajectory continues, confirming current projections, the government’s 2024 budget proposal will give “momentum” to the tax credit line.

“The government has already announced that once projections for 2023 are confirmed, the tax credits, and from the start of the IRS, will be enhanced in 2024 as announced in the Stability Program and with a two-year release horizon. billion euros over the next four years. This is an acceleration and strengthening of the path,” he said.

In response, PKP MP Joao Dias referred to the fact that the PS included in the electoral programs the mandatory inclusion of all income, and asked where the fulfillment of this promise.

João Dias also rebelled against the government’s continued regime of non-permanent residents, estimating that it would cost the Portuguese state about one billion euros, which is “an injustice towards Portuguese pensioners”.

On the Left Bloc side, MP Isabel Pires noted that tax revenues have always exceeded the government’s forecasts, “but in reality the growth is not good for them, which serves to inflate right-wing narratives” about the tax burden in Portugal. .

“PS does not have a single proposal to address the issue of tax injustice in Portugal,” Isabel Pires regretted.

PSD MP Hugo Carvalho said he didn’t know “a single Portuguese worker who wasn’t shocked by the taxes they pay” and reiterated the social democratic thesis that Portugal is one of the countries in the European Union with the highest tax burden.

“Portugal PS is a country where taxes serve to punish merit. Those who receive more prizes are more taxed. When António Costa is prime minister, the Portuguese pay him more and more taxes every year,” he stressed.

The sole PAN member, Inés de Souza Real, also criticized the tax injustice, contrasting the treatment applied to bonuses attributed to managers and the tax applied to pet expenses.

“Fiscal justice should be synonymous with social and environmental justice,” he added.