Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero pledged last year to eliminate the country’s wealth tax if re-elected, which brings in around 1.4 billion euro a year, a relatively small amount. Zapatero noted that the tax is paid mostly by the middle classes because the wealthy have found ways to avoid it (hmmm . . . sounds familiar).
Today, Bloomberg reports Zapatero put the measure through and eliminated the wealth tax, and even called his ministers in early from summer vacation to do it. He also approved 20 billion euros of financing for businesses and consumers to try to further stimulate Spain’s economic pace, which according to Bloomberg is at its slowest pace since a recession in 1993.
Apparently the wealth tax is not a very popular idea within Europe anyway — Wikipedia claims only France, Greece, Norway, Switzerland and Liechtenstein impose such a tax within the continent.
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