€30,400 a year: is Spain's new wealth threshold?

€30,400 a year: is Spain's new wealth threshold?

How much do you have to earn to be considered rich? A recent benchmark puts the bar at €30,400 a year, a figure that, according to reports, would mark the boundary between the upper-middle and upper class. The reaction in economic circles was swift: irony, scepticism and the suspicion that the ground is being prepared for a tax rise.

A threshold that invites mockery

The exact figure — €30,400 — raises doubts about whether it refers to gross income, net income or wealth. But the mere fact that it is being floated as the frontier of opulence is hard to swallow for anyone who knows what a mortgage costs in Spain's big cities. "So, on my salary and with my mortgage, it turns out I'm part of the elite," jokes one analysis circulating on social media. Others point out that, if the reference is net monthly income, the picture would change, but the ambiguity fuels distrust.

Preparation for a new tax regime?

Behind the controversy lies the perception that any statistical reclassification ends up as the pretext for making upper-middle earners pay more. "Above €30,400 you're upper class. Softening the ground for when the upper class has to contribute more," sums up the prevailing view among sceptics. The constant references to "the party of quicklime and the million dead" — a jab at Spain's ruling PSOE and its Civil War legacy — show that the discussion goes beyond the technical and is tinged with political polarisation.

A mockery with real consequences

Among the harshest comments, some outright call it a "mockery", while others, even self-identifying as lower class, admit that public subsidies are what keep them afloat. The general feeling is that taxpayers are being lied to outright with figures that bear no relation to the reality of prices, inflation and rents. "They're pissing on us and telling us it's fine rain," one analysis concludes, capturing the mood.

With thresholds like these, most Spanish mortgage holders would suddenly be aristocrats. The trouble is that VAT makes no distinction between classes.