Former senior Treasury officials revealed a setback in the legal security of the tax system
Selected tax consulting firms in the past five years More than fifty regulatory changes that have increased taxes for taxpayers. The frantic regulatory activity of the Pedro Sánchez government in this area has increased administrative complexity, increasing compliance costs for taxpayers, as the tax agency has recently begun to contact them, also in deteriorating levels of legal certainty under Spanish taxation.
This was stated on Tuesday by the former general director for taxation at the Ministry of Finance and now working as a consultant in the law firm of Gómez Acebo & Pombo, Diego Martin April And Begona Garcia Rosadoformer Deputy General Director of Taxes for Legal Persons and current Head of the Tax District of Iberdrola, who denounced the arbitrary use of tax policy taken in recent years to obtain new income and the collapse of the international consensus for the establishment of national tax figures in March created distortions for Spanish companies.
They gave several examples, such as the tax on single-use plastics, which took effect on January 1, and whose enforcement has become a constant source of trouble for businesses; Or the new taxes on banks and energy, which deviate from the European consensus and which, according to corporate complaints, have become a competitive burden.
Martín Abril and García Rosado, who were in the treasury structure between 2012 and 2016, coincided within the framework of an analytical day organized by the Register of Tax Advisers (RIAF), where there was The competitiveness of the Spanish tax system has declined in the past five years. “It was a complex phase, in which the lack of social stability also made legal stability difficult, but it is true that there was some abuse of tax policy,” says Martin Abril. “Although there are no targets to reduce the public deficit, it has not stopped taking measures to increase taxes,” lamented García Rosado, who stressed yesterday that the first thing that fiscal authorities have to look for to maintain the competitiveness of the economy is “no Be afraid of work.”
Martín Abril and García Rozado both acknowledged the existence of legal loopholes in the Spanish tax system and claimed the need for more regulatory stability and Predictable legislative action.
The conference organized by the Tax Advisers Registration Office attempted to define the strategies necessary to improve the competitiveness of the Spanish tax system, which has been particularly shaken by the latest international indicators released in recent months.
Begoña García Rozado, who in recent months as a tax officer in Iberdrola has had to deal with taxes on energy companies, stressed the need to try to avoid having strict Spanish tax figures when working for the European Commission or the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) to create harmonized figures to avoid discrepancies In terms of reference between companies from different countries.
In terms of critical changes, García Rozado and Martín Abril first pointed out Cancellation of 5% on dividends from foreign sources“something that investors look at a lot before doing business in a country, and that forces companies to pay a tax levy just because a parent company is in Spain,” which the government has introduced since January 1, 2021.
They also agreed to the proposal Income tax rate contraction To ease the tax burdens of the middle classes, in line with what the People’s Party had proposed, and a handful of independent governments governed by the people had already begun.
Energy taxes, in the spotlight
The controversial Spanish tax on energy companies, the design of which clearly went beyond the criteria established by the European Commission to coordinate the establishment of this type of extraordinary tax throughout the entire European Union, It will be submitted before October 15th for consideration by the Commission To determine whether or not it meets the objectives detailed in the European regulation approved last October. The resolution can decide whether or not to apply it next year in the event that the upcoming Resolution 23J leads to a change of government, as assumed by the PP.
The Commission designed a different scheme than the one Spain decided to implement in which electricity companies’ profits were contained by price caps and used as a financial tool to tax the extraordinary profits of the extractive industries. The government decided to go the other way, and extended the tax to include electricity companies, extending its period from one year to two years, and not only imposed a tax on extraordinary profits, but also extended it to all sales.
Officials in Brussels will now have to decide whether the Spanish tax is “similar”, in the terminology used by the Commission, to that set by the regulation or, on the contrary, does not achieve the same ends or the same objectives, which That could lead to a public rebuke from Brussels Or who knows if a correction is requested.
This is the door that the economic spokesman for the People’s Party, Juan Bravo, indicated last Monday to refer any decision of a possible future government of Alberto Núñez Viejo on that tax to the analysis carried out by the European Commission, which means that automatic reversal will be determined.
