“Mexico’s voice is missed in the debate on taxing the rich”

Washington and New York.The world is missing Mexico’s voice in international debates about taxation, among other issues, and acting on domestic fiscal policy could help Claudia Sheinbaum‘s government achieve its social objectives, commented José Antonio Ocampo, former minister of Finance of Colombia and former executive secretary of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), in an interview with The Day.

Ocampo, who is a member of the Independent Commission for the Reform of International Corporate Taxation (ICRICT), also expressed hope that Mexico will resume its historic role as a leader in international affairs, including proposals to tax super rich.

In the interview, Ocampo began with recommendations for Mexico: “I think it has to carry out a tax reform, because if not, the spending cut it has to make – given the high deficit it registers – would be very complicated for the spending project. social of the government,” he assured.

The government of Andrés Manuel López Obrador basically tried to guarantee that tax obligations were paid. That was the main thing, but without changing the tax rules. And Mexico has a level of tax collection as a percentage of GDP lower than the Latin American average.

The former secretary general of ECLAC explains that the level of tax collection in Mexico is much lower than that of other countries on the American continent, such as Brazil, Colombia and Chile. The leaders of the Group of 20 (G-20), of which Mexico is a member, have agreed to explore a global minimum tax on billionaires. The proposal does not stipulate how to collect taxes, it only says that each country must ensure that elites pay at least 2 percent of the value of their wealth in taxes each year.

One of the ICRICT proposals is for each nation to create a registry of all the financial assets, properties and other assets of wealthy individuals in its territory and then share this information with other governments to prevent the rich from hiding their fortunes. It is very important that it be by final beneficiary. In other words, it is not a company, but rather the owners of that company. This is the wealth tax in Colombia. That is, if one owns shares of a company, one has to declare them as personal assets.he explained.

Beyond addressing tax reform in Mexico, Ocampo expressed the hope that the country, publicly, will once again participate in the international arena on these and other issues.

With Andrés Manuel López Obrador, Mexico disappeared from the agenda, there was no priority for international proposals. It’s a contradictionhe stated. Mexico is very important in these international debates.

Something that surprised Ocampo was when the project to create a tax convention was discussed at the United Nations in November of last year and Mexico abstained, but in August of this year it voted in favor of the project’s terms of reference.

Ocampo noted that Brazil aims for a leadership role in promoting tax proposals in the G-20; However, it cannot play the role that Mexico could play in Latin America. First, because they speak Portuguese, but also because they want to be a powerhouse. Mexico has never played that. So, that is why Brazil has never been the Latin American leader, while Mexico was..

One way to change that, he explained, would be for Mexico to join the Regional Tax Cooperation Platform created last year in Cartagena de Indias by an initiative of Colombia, Chile and Brazil with the purpose of creating a space for the integration of the ministries of Treasury, Economy and Finance to promote dialogue and guide international tax policies.

I hope Sheinbaum gets on the platformhe expressed.

Mexico is a big country. He was the international leaderhe declared. I hope that President Claudia Sheinbaum and her chancellor really bring Mexico into international debates.

Beyond the tax issue, The Day He asked if he sees any initiatives at this time that seek to structurally build a new type of economy, incorporating fiscal reforms and broader proposals.

All leftist governments have proposals. Now, where are they going? They differ from each other. And it is not the old statism, but there are more social programs, more State intervention, even more official promotion of new economic activities. That is an issue that has returned to the agenda, which was totally absent before.he highlighted.

Now there are many more industrial policy proposals. It is a diverse agenda and different social programs are important in all those leftist agendas, let’s say. And, clearly, tax reform focused on taxing the super-rich must be part of these proposals, he stressed.