Taxes

Argentinean president Alberto Fernandez proposed a new set of regulations to tax the richest people in the country (above 2,35 M dollars).

Now the congress discusses the proposal that would create a one-time tax, starting with 3.5% up to 5.25%. The extraordinary fee is estimated to affect between 9.000 and 12.000 richest Argentineans, then 20% of the money collected will be used to fight the Covid-19 crises, and the rest will be used to reduce the economic crisis that holds the country in recession since 2018, having 40,9% of the total population of 44 million Argentineans under the poverty line.

In a report called “What we must do to rebuild”, Deutsche Bank suggests slapping a 5% daily tax on people who work from home and using the funds raised to subsidise the lowest-paid workers who are unable to work remotely.

Working from home meant that many people were saving on everyday costs such as travel, lunch, clothes and cleaning, as well as probably spending less on socializing. Subsidizing businesses that had no long-term future in this shift toward "human disconnection" made no sense for governments, Templeman said, but supporting workers who had been "displaced by forces out outside their control". At the same time, they retrain or figure out their next steps did.

Vox.com reports that the former CEO of Google, Eric Schmidt, is finalizing a plan to become a citizen of the island of Cyprus, becoming one of the highest-profile Americans to take advantage of one of the world’s most controversial “passport-for-sale” programs.

Theo Andreou, the head of Cyprus program for Astons, speculated Schmidt could be making the move for two possible reasons: "One reason is to have a Plan B during Covid. The other reason is that they are expanding their business in Europe."

Cyprus announced in mid-October that due to “abusive exploitation,” it was shutting the program down, around when Schmidt’s approval was published.

The German Federal Fiscal Court (BFH) has ruled in favour of clubs. The availability of the reduced tax rate bonus does not depend on whether instrumentalists or singers are on stage, but rather on whether the music represents the actual purpose of the event from the perspective of an "average visitor". If so, turntables, mixing desks and CD players can also be regarded as instruments, at least if they are "used to perform the piece of music and not just to play a sound carrier".

With the largest international tax reform in decades, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) wants to regulate how global corporations are taxed. Now the 137 countries involved have come close enough to a consensus that a breakthrough is imminent.

The German Finance Minister Olaf Scholz has stated that "we have taken a huge step forward with the unanimous agreement on the blueprints for reforming global corporate taxation" and added that in his opinion the OECD "will be able to reach final agreement on this major reform project by summer next year. After all, the project still needs political approval, and so far the green light from the United States in particular has been lacking".

President Donald Trump has claimed "he paid millions of dollars in taxes" during the first presidential debate Tuesday, just days after a report by the New York Times showed the president paid no federal income taxes in 10 out of the last 15 years.

Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden suggested Trump "does take advantage of the tax code" and that the president "pays less tax than a schoolteacher."

"I don't want to pay tax," Trump responded, claiming that all business leaders did the same "unless they are stupid."

Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden released his tax information. hours before he was scheduled to square off against President Donald Trump in the first of three presidential debates.

According to the returns, Biden paid nearly $288,000 in income taxes last year.

Biden's wife, Jill, and his California Senator Kamala Harris also released their tax information.

Apple has won the appeal against the European Commission over whether the company owed €13 billion in Irish taxes. The European Union's general court ruled that the European Commission wasn't able to prove that Apple had gotten an advantage by the Irish government.