Prosecutor-General pushes income tax for judiciary

Prosecutor-General Alejandra Gils Carbó yesterday called on the Supreme Court to “work jointly to implement the payment of income tax” on the part of judges and court attorneys.

Gils Carbó was thus echoing a government policy included by President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner in her package of judicial reforms announced in her State-of -the-Nation speech at the start of this month (a package including popular election of the Council of Magistrates and the creation of new appeals courts among its main elements). But in that speech CFK had said that while she could always introduce bills to that effect and Congress could approve them, the last word concerning the taxation of judges belonged to the Supreme Court. Which is presumably why Gils Carbó went to that last resort first in order to ensure ultimate success.

Last Thursday the Prosecutor-General’s office had already approached the Supreme Court to request a meeting between the deputy administrative directors of the two organisms over the issue of implementing the payment of income tax within the judiciary. The letter quotes department statutes as stipulating “parity of rank and benefits” between the office and the judicial branch as a whole without ruling out the payment of taxes.

PRO centre-right deputy Laura Alonso was quick to jump on Gils Carbó’s statements, accusing her of being “a good pupil of Kirchnerism” who was already fishing for her bench on the Supreme Court. Alonso also said that the state attorney was assuming a “transparent guise” but if she really wanted to preach by example, she should place all her sworn declarations of assets on the Web like Alonso.

In theory Gils Carbó is pushing at an open door because last Tuesday the Supreme Court gave its blessing to most of the judicial reform package, including the payment of income tax which six of the seven justices promised to resolve “as soon as possible.”

Herald staff with DyN