MADRID (AP) — Spain’s Socialist-led coalition government is planning a temporary higher tax rate on the richest 1% of the country from next year, in addition to its windfall taxes on large energy companies and banks.
“We are proposing a redistribution of the effort, among those who have the most, to fund the welfare state, which is everybody’s,” Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said in a speech Friday.
Finance Minister María Jesús Montero says the measure targets only millionaires. The expected increase in tax revenue will be used to alleviate hardship brought by higher prices for energy and food, she says. The annual inflation rate climbed to 10.5% in Spain last month.
The exact increase and scope of the tax measure are still being worked out, the government says.
