Spain raises national sales tax to 21%
Spain now has a 21% national sales tax. This is what happens when socialist governments spend like crazy.
It is worse, in Spain their sales tax is in the form of a value added tax. This means that the tax is applied at every stage of production - The sugar, the flour, the water, the making of the dough, the baking, the packaging and finally the selling. That adds up to one expensive loaf of bread. This is who elite Democrats and academics say we should emulate.
CNBC:
Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy announced a swathe of new taxes and spending cuts on Wednesday designed to slash 65 billion euros from the budget deficit by 2014 as recession-plagued Spain struggles to meet tough targets agreed with Europe.
Rajoy, of the center-right People's Party, proposed a 3-point hike in the main rate of Value Added Tax on goods and services to 21 percent, and outlined cuts in unemployment benefit and civil service pay and perks in a parliamentary speech interrupted by jeers and boos from the opposition.
"These measures are not pleasant, but they are necessary. Our public spending exceeds our income by tens of billions of euros," Rajoy told parliament.
He also announced new indirect taxes on energy, plans to privatize ports, airports and rail assets, and a reversal of property tax breaks that his party had restored last December.