While in Italy the debate has barely been mentioned, a country has decided to break the taboo on patrimonial property: it is Argentina, led for a year by Alberto Fernandez, who after opening the doors of the Casa Rosada for the funeral home of Diego Armando Maradona broke the delay and presented the bill for the solidarity contribution to Parliament. It is a kind of asset, which in the meantime the Argentine Parliament has approved, but with a one-off formula: only the 12.000 richest people in the country are taxed (including former president Mauricio Macri and at least 3 senators, two of whom are Peronists), who declare over 2,5 million dollars a year, and the proceeds - it is estimated at around 300 million pesos - will be used to fight against Covid.
Argentina is one of the South American countries most affected by the emergency and in October it was the fifth country in the world to exceed one million infections: 1,45 million cases have been recorded since the beginning of the pandemic (of which almost 300.000 in the capital Buenos Aires alone) and the dead are 40.000. It may come as a surprise that such a high threshold, 2,5 million dollars, involves a niche but nonetheless broad audience, however the reason is easily explained: the currency considered is the US dollar, and in Argentina, due to very high inflation, the exchange rate with the peso has an unthinkable value (the equivalent of 200 million pesos). That is why among the taxable, according to the Argentine press, there should even be the deputy Maximo Kirchner, son of the former president Cristina, now Fernandez's deputy.
The provision is causing a lot of controversy, because the country has been in a serious economic crisis for some time, further aggravated by the health emergency. Many accuse the government, which has a Peronist majority from the more socialist wing, of not having been able to implement the necessary reforms and of preferring the shortcut of taxation and welfare. However, the tax is progressive: from 200 to 300 million pesos (from 2,5 to 4 million dollars), the rate is 2% for assets owned domestically and 3% for those abroad, going up to the rate 3,5 and 5,25% respectively for assets exceeding 3 billion pesos, i.e. just under 90 million US dollars.
