He Labor Reform Project He entered the Senate with controversy right from the start, as part of Peronism warns against it Tax chapter that the president Javier Milei The principle contained in the text would force the start of the debate in the Chamber of Deputies, although La Libertad Avanza (LLA) rejects this reading and is already trying to put together the roadmap for the treatment.
The 195-article initiative establishes important changes to salaries, leave and allowances and repeals numerous professional laws, but also includes at the end of its record two titles (XXIV and XXV) of “Changes to Tax Laws,” which include: Income tax for companies, VAT on certain items and exemption from internal taxes.
This chapter caused a stir in the debate before the Senate before it began, as part of the bench of the Peronist Union for the Homeland warned that the national constitution required it “Contribution laws” – i.e. taxes – must first be dealt with by the Chamber of Deputies.
Against this background, some opposition senators will try to change the course set by the government for the extraordinary sessions and force the ruling party to forward the labor reform project to the deputies or split it into a separate text along with the tax chapter. However, this is only the first attempt at resistance to the initiative.
Labor reform: How is the discussion surrounding the tax chapter going in the Senate?
“The Senate cannot accept the inclusion of an initiative that, due to an express constitutional mandate, must begin consideration in the Chamber of Deputies“said Senator Carolina Moisés (Jujuy), a representative of the Federal Conviction bloc, part of the Unión por la Patria, where together with the CGT they are already on the warpath against the reform.
Moisés stressed that the project that entered the Senate this Thursday morning is “Title XXIV on taxes, it explicitly modifies VAT and profits” and stressed: “Before discussing the content, we have the institutional obligation to ensure that the process is constitutional. If the executive branch has included tax matters, the Senate cannot open the treatment.”
This objection is causing a stir at the beginning of the debate over electoral reform, although it does not represent an insurmountable obstacle. According to LLA sources iProfessionalthey will reject the proposal with the argument that The project “does not create new taxes” but rather makes changes so that the constitutional mandate would not apply.
In fact, a similar discussion recently took place around the project to amend the liquid fuel tax (ICL), when a section of Peronism tried to redirect the issue to the MPs, but the ruling party won the battle – with consensus in the rest of the blocs – by arguing that only the distribution of revenue was changed.
What is in the tax chapter of the labor reform?
He Labor reform tax chapter that caused this first controversy is primarily due to a VAT exemption for the provision of electrical energy used in irrigation systems for the agro-industrial sector, but then entails deeper modifications.
One of them is in Article 186, which refers to the updating of losses in the income tax for legal entities and stipulates that losses arising in financial years beginning on or after January 1, 2025 (inclusive) will be updated by the Consumer Price Index (CPI)which implies an inflation adjustment mechanism.
Meanwhile, Title XXV establishes a “Reducing the tax burden” by repealing “from the first day of the month immediately following the month of entry into force of this Law” the internal taxes on the items “insurance, mobile and satellite telephone services, luxury goods and motor vehicles, recreational or sport boats and aircraft”.
The government’s strategy: will it seek a statement next week?
As they ponder whether or not to insist on this discussion, In the Interbloc Union for the Homeland, they have already allied themselves with the leadership of the CGT to reject anything that, in their opinion, “harms the workers and their organizations.”. The union headquarters has already decided to mobilize against labor reform next Thursday in Plaza de Mayo.
Meanwhile, the bank led by José Mayans, Juliana di Tullio and Anabel Fernández Sagasti received this Thursday representatives of the CTA and the national union ATE on the first floor of the Senate. The idea of Peronism in these hours Unite with all trade unionists to oppose the project presented by the executive and, moreover, to avoid the “explicit” treatment that the ruling party wants to give it.
And the libertarian senators led by Patricia Bullrich are not intimidated by the first signs of dispute from the unions and the Peronist bloc. This Thursday they had a block meeting in which they agreed to meet with the labor commission from Wednesday, Thursday and Friday of next week to “sign the statement”.
This has been confirmed iProfessional a prominent LLA senator who stated: “If we don’t get a decision next week, we’ll have to pass everything by February“For this reason, President Victoria Villarruel has scheduled a parliamentary Labor session for Tuesday. There, an agreement will be sought on the establishment of the main commissions.”
In the Labor Party, Cármen Álvarez Rivero agreed to hand over the presidency to Bullrich, who has the approval of Casa Rosada to lead the debate on labor reform and step on the accelerator. But the fight with the Unión por la Patria will revolve around the distribution of the other seats on the commission, with the LLA trying to achieve a majority among its own and allies in the PRO and the UCR.
In this way, Javier Milei’s government does not abandon its intention to speed up the treatment of the labor reform in the Senate in order to be able to give it a “half-sanction” before December 30, although it privately recognizes that it is a “difficult” objective. The project’s tax chapter makes the first impression in this discussion, but the battle has only just begun and promises to be protracted.
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