SINCE 2000, when a Mexican film director made “Amores Perros”, a gritty tale about dogs, crime and violence, the status of canines in society has improved a lot. In middle-class parts of Mexico, dog hotels, stylists and even “organic” dog-poo bins are so prevalent that having a pooch has become a symbol of upward mobility. No wonder, then, that the middle class is howling over a proposed tax reform unveiled on September 8th. Not only does this seek to raise taxes on everything from salaries over 500,000 pesos ($38,000) to private schools. It even slaps a levy on dog biscuits.Big businesses, too, are snarling. They claim to be perennial hostages to the taxman, forced to fork out more every time Mexico attempts to improve its measly tax take because 60% of the working population pay nothing. The reform aims to squeeze more out of them: by banning tax consolidation, which enables big firms to offset profits in one business with losses from another; and by slashing their ability to write off employee benefits for tax purposes. The reform also includes an anti-obesity “sin tax” on soft drinks (Mexicans are the world’s biggest Coke guzzlers and have girths to show for it). Big users of energy face the unexpected introduction of a carbon tax.The main aim of President Enrique Peña Nieto is to raise the tax take—which at 14% of GDP is below the Latin American average—and cut the...
via The Economist: The Americas http://www.economist.com/news/americas/21586337-tax-plan-dictated-politics-its-dogs-life?fsrc=rss%7Came
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