look the other way

This week the Civil Guard dismantled the Los Piños clan in Puerto Serrano. It has not been the only blow to drug trafficking in the province so far this week, but it is very significant, due to the feeling of inviolability with which some of its members displayed themselves, both on social networks and in public, and the disproportionate rack of marijuana plantations that they had, which used to consume more electricity than the nearby Villamartín hospital. There were videos with purchases, with jewelry, with rappers, and it was common to see them driving around the town in a Porsche, perhaps aware of our habit of looking the other way, even if we accompany it with whispers.

It happens with the underground economy. The data reflects that many practice it on a daily basis; so many that it is impossible to live outside of it. And yet we look the other way. Minute sin. Worse still, it finds justification, as occurred during the most difficult moments of the brick crisis, in which it was even admitted that, if it weren't for the chapús that some and others were finding, the streets would be on fire.

This Friday, through a study commissioned by the Cádiz Business Confederation and the Provincial Council, its approximate impact has been revealed, and it is not to be proud. In 2020 alone, unreported economic activity cost public coffers €1.5 billion. What's more, if all this activity were to flourish, the province's GDP would rise between 4 and 7%. The study concludes that the weight of the irregular economy between 1986 and 2020 has been 33% of GDP, and although it has dropped to between 19 and 24% over the last 15 years, it is currently double the record existing in the rest of Spain.

The report, like the Civil Guard operation against drug traffickers in a town in the Sierra, makes visible a situation that is not talked about, or, in any case, as I say, is whispered about, whether it is a Porsche or the reform of a basement, but it also places the accent on the causes and solutions once the data is exposed. And what the evaluation supports is that in the province there is a lot of cash in circulation and very little education regarding the civic and tax commitment that means not working, collecting or paying in B. Obviously, the solutions go through reinforcing training in this scope, encourage compliance with obligations, carry out greater supervisory control or facilitate electronic payment, which is already well advanced in northern European countries, where it is not necessary to carry cash in your wallet, only plastic.

@vyncentjrwi [Reaches out to touch them, but retracts hand slightly] Would you like me to help or do you have it

— 》Ꭱꭼꮪꮖꭰꭼɴꭲ Ꮋꮖꮇᏼꮻ Tue Apr 20 23:34:09 +0000 2021

But there is also a responsibility in all this matter that does not fall only on the citizen, but on the administration, since one of the reasons why many choose to avoid the activity in A is found in the tax burden: how much higher, the more fraud grows.

In fact, it is the main argument that is currently on the table against the claims of the Ministry of Social Security to modify the contribution system among the self-employed. The Government plans to reduce the contribution by 10% for all those who do not exceed the SMI, and increase by 40% that of those who are above the salary meter. It does so by arguing that two out of three self-employed are below the scale, when the data handled by ATA of the 3.2 million Spanish self-employed, 56% have presented a net income above the SMI, which does not the aprioristic calculations of the Ministry, which, on the other hand, aspires to enter an extra two billion euros that may remain much less, since the increase in tax pressure will almost be an invitation to exercise fraud and the underground economy , and, of course, to degenerate into unfair competition.

As on other occasions, we have the best when it comes to establishing the theory and proposing the solutions, but it is very difficult for us to put it into practice, with how easy it is to look the other way.