Denmark's wealthiest businesspeople are up in arms and have fully entered the election campaign for the general election to be held in the Nordic country on March 24. The reason for their discontent is the campaign promise of Social Democratic Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen to reintroduce a 5% annual wealth tax as a measure to reduce growing inequality in the country. The new tax, which has become one of the hottest topics of the election campaign, would affect some 22,000 people (in a country with 5.9 million inhabitants), who would pay an average of 300,000 kroner per year (40,000 euros). Frederiksen detailed this in the business daily. BørsenThe state would collect around 6 billion kroner annually (803 million euros), which would be used to finance the ambitious public school reform presented by the Social Democrats before the elections. Just days before the polls open, surveys show that the wealth tax is viewed favorably by a majority of voters, as Frederiksen's party is the most likely to win the election. However, there is virtually a tie between the progressive parties, which have supported the Social Democrats' proposal, and the conservative parties, which completely reject the idea. Executives from some of the country's leading companies have also publicly voiced their strong opposition, making unusual media appearances during the campaign. The CEO of shipping giant Maersk, Robert Maersk Uggla, has stated that the tax "would have very bad consequences for Denmark." Uggla, who heads the largest company in the Nordic country (with a turnover of €52 billion in 2024), expressed his fear that Danish companies will have even more difficulty hiring and retaining top executives due to the tax, as Denmark already applies one of the highest income tax rates in the world at 60.5% on salaries exceeding €348,000 annually. Meanwhile, businessman Henrik Andersen, CEO of Vestas (a world leader in wind turbine manufacturing), has threatened to pack his bags and move the company abroad if the Social Democrats fulfill their election promise. "If it comes to fruition; I can be more clear," he said in an interview with the newspaper. Berlingske

Financial engineering, which benefits large corporations, has devastating effects on national treasuries. The Spanish treasury lost over $32 billion in corporate tax revenue between 2016 and 2021 (€27.7 billion at the current exchange rate) due to legal tax techniques employed by multinationals worldwide. Of this sum, approximately 10% corresponded to practices aimed at reducing the tax burden, such as shifting profits to lower-tax jurisdictions, by large US companies like Amazon and others.

In the context of the negotiations for the collection of all taxes resulting from the agreement for the new financing of the PSC and ERC, the Catalan Treasury nearly broke a record for revenue from its own and transferred taxes last year. The Catalan Tax Agency (ATC), the body on which these changes hinge, collected a total of €5.286 billion from these items in 2024, the second-highest figure ever achieved, only slightly surpassed by 2006 (€5.362 billion), when the Generalitat had virtually no taxes of its own. Last year's figure represented a 12% increase over the previous year, thanks to the boost in taxes linked to real estate activity, according to data from the Catalan government.

The Government has decided to implement the tax on CO₂ emissions emissions from motor vehicles -which affects cars, motorcycles and vans-, which will start to be paid in autumn. On average, the tax will involve the payment of €35 per year for cars and €26 for motorcycles, with which the Government expects to collect €67.3m this year, an amount that will increase to €145m in 2022, when the level of emissions required to be exempt will be lowered.