False: It is false that Argentina has revoked the right to inheritance in the country. It is also not true that former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) has not disclosed his government plan and that he would have intended to take away the right to inheritance from Brazilians. The two claims were made in a video posted on Kwai. However, the government plan is a document that all candidates are required to present to the Superior Electoral Court (TSE). Although it did not present detailed proposals, the campaign did present programmatic guidelines in which there is no mention of inheritance.
Investigated Content: Video circulating on the Kwai app shows a text stating that Argentine President Alberto Fernandez revoked the right to inheritance in the country. In the play, a narrator criticizes socialism and claims that Lula “is not showing his government project” because she intends to do the same in Brazil. “When a family man dies, the inheritance will go to the State. You saw how wonderful socialism is. That’s why Lula doesn’t want to show his government project. Today, Argentines do not have the right to inheritance”, says the narrator.
where it was published: Kwai.
Completion of Proof: It is false that President Alberto Fernández revoked the right to inheritance in Argentina, as stated in a video in Kwai. It is also not true that former President Lula has not disclosed his government plan. The program was criticized for not providing detailed proposals, but in the guidelines document sent to the TSE, there is no mention of inheritance. The Lula-Alckmin ticket program is in a public document available at site of the TSE. There is no mention of the topic in it.
Contrary to what is stated in the publication, there is no announcement by the Argentine government of revocation of inheritance in the country. What happened was a change in relation to the tax levied on the transfer of goods. This year, Argentina changed some tax rules, allowing provinces to increase taxation and start charging inheritance fees. It is up to each province to decide whether or not to charge.
For Comprova, false is content invented or edited to change its original meaning and deliberately released to spread a falsehood.
Scope of publication: The target post of the check had 140,000 views, nearly 12,000 likes and 19,000 shares on Kwai as of October 18, 2022.
What does the publisher say?: Comprova contacted the page that published the fake video. There was no response.
How do we check: The first step was to search Google for news about the revocation of the right to inheritance in Argentina. The query was performed in Portuguese and Spanish using the Google language search tool. The search only returned results about the change regarding the inheritance tax. We also searched the Argentine government’s official website for laws and regulations concerning inheritance. Once again, we only find the document about the change in tax legislation.
Then the team looked for Lula’s government plan on the TSE website and also got in touch with the PT’s press office. The document was easily found both in the Court’s database and on Lula’s campaign website. Finally, Comprova tried to contact the person responsible for the post by direct message on Kwai.
Alberto Fernandez did not revoke inheritance rights in Argentina
We did not find any news in the Argentine media about the revocation of inheritance in the country. What happened was a change in relation to the tax levied on the transfer of goods. At the end of 2021, the then Secretary of Provinces of the Ministry of the Interior, Silvina Batakis, spoke of the government’s intention to reinstate the inheritance tax in Argentina in 2022. The country has not had an inheritance tax since 1976. This year, Argentina changed some tax rules in the Tax Consensus 2022. The change allows provinces to increase taxation and levy inheritance tax if they choose.
In Brazil, the inheritance tax is already levied by the states, and is provided for in the Federal Constitution. And the Cause Mortis and Donations Transmission Tax (ITCMD), charged when transferring the property from the deceased to the heir. The rate depends on the state, but can reach up to 8%, according to Senate resolution. Some inheritance values are also tax-exempt.
Lula’s government plan is public and does not talk about inheritances
All candidates for the Presidency of the Republic are required by law to deliver the government plan to the TSE. If they fail to do so, they are barred from running in the elections. O Lula-Alckmin’s government plan is available on the Divulgacand Contas websitefrom the TSE, and deals with “Guidelines for the Brazilian Reconstruction and Transformation Program”.
In it, signatories make commitments in areas such as health, education, social justice, inclusion, work, employment, income and food security. The document was also made available on the Lula’s official website. Altogether, the document has 121 topics, spread over 20 pages.
A search for the term “inheritance” and the like in the document in question does not yield any results. The document was made available in August of this year and is signed by the Brasil da Esperança Coalition, which, in addition to the PT, has the following subtitles: PSB, PCdoB, PV, Psol, Rede, Solidariedade, Avante and Agir.
Despite the disclosure, Lula was criticized for having only made public a non-detailed version of the government’s plan. The PT’s initial campaign schedule was to present another 50-page document that would better specify some of the proposals. Nonetheless, according to the G1Lula’s team decided not to publish the final version of the program to avoid polemics that could be used against him.
Asked about the allegation made in the checked video, Lula’s adviser informed that it is “an outright lie” and added that PT opponents “have been inventing lies in series to try to hide the social and economic disaster of the Bolsonaro government”.
why do we investigate: Comprova investigates suspicious content about the covid-19 pandemic, public policies of the federal government and the presidential elections that go viral on social media. False or misleading publications involving candidates for the Presidency of the Republic, as in the case of the piece that is the subject of this verification, can lead to misinterpretations of reality and influence voters at the time of voting. Citizens have the right to base their choices on true and reliable information.
Other checks on the topic: In recent checks involving presidential candidates and representatives from other nations, Comprova has shown that it is false that Lula and the president-elect of Colombia want to force people to share a house with other families; what speech in support of Bolsonaro was made by an Argentine journalist and not by an ambassador, as the video states is that video shows pastor meeting Bolsonaro, not the president of South Korea.
Investigated by: O Povo, Correio Braziliense and SBT; Verified by: A Gazeta, Plural Curitiba, O Dia, CBN Cuiabá, Estado de S.Paulo and O Popular.
Source: CNN Brasil
