Organizing the Free Market Road Show won’t be possible without our partners and affiliates in all of the countries we are visiting. Therefore we prepared a series of articles where we would like to present them one by one and we will start today with a Spanish think tank Civismo.
Civismo was named one of eight finalists for the 2014 prestigious Templeton Freedom Award for its campaign to lower taxes and promote economic freedom all throughout Spain. This campaign paved the way to significant tax reform. One component of the reform package is that the average income earner will save about 600 euros per year.
Civismo’s mission is to evaluate social and economic public policies, rising awareness among citizens and getting alternative options out into the public debate. Therefore, citizens can take informed decision considering all the aspects concerning public policies and, at the same time, contributing to hold politicians accountable for what they do.
One of their main project is Tax Freedom Day annual campaign that informs taxpayers of the amount of taxes they are paying and where do they stand in comparison with other European Countries and finally claim tax cuts for Spain in order to create employment and weal
This year’s report reveals that the average worker in Spain spends more than 6 month to work for the State: Tax Freedom day was July 3rd. The study also reveals that despite lagging Sweden and Finland in average wage by half, Spain’s labor force carries an equivalent tax burden of 40%.
Civismo also developed an online tax calculator for each of the seventeen autonomies so that any taxpayer can calculate his own Tax Freedom Day. The tax calculator is also useful in order to give every citizen a simple and clear understanding of the latest tax hikes.
The second big project is index of Economic Freedom in Spain inspired by the Index of Economic Freedom of Heritage Foundation, and the Economic Freedom of the World of Fraser and Cato Institutes. The main goal of this publication is to evidence that regions with lower tax levels, smaller government, reduced regulation and red tape and pro-market legislation perform better in terms of economic freedom and wealth.
Civismo also publish the magazine “Expectativas” that evaluates public polices around the world in order to detect future socioeconomic trends that the Spanish society will experiment.
Each year Civismo recognizes the most exceptional contribution to create an active civil society by awarding the Civil Society Prize by think tank Civismo. Last year winners was Esperanza Aguirre and Albert Boadella.
If you are interested in learning more about Civismo visit their website and youtube channel, follow their Twitter account or become a Facebook fan.
