Mexico’s Pena Nieto Seeks Capital Gains, High Earners Taxes

Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto proposed taxes on capital gains, sugary drinks and the nation’s highest earners in a bid to wean the government of Latin America’s second-largest economy off its dependence on oil revenue.

The bill sent to congress yesterday along with the president’s 2014 budget proposal would place a new 10 percent tax on individuals’ profits from stock sales and dividends, raise the maximum personal income tax rate to 32 percent from 30 percent and avoid taxing food and medicine. The measures would help offset a proposed lower tax burden for state-owned oil producer Petroleos Mexicanos, or Pemex, and help pay for universal social security and unemployment insurance.