MadridThe Spanish government has managed to unblock an agreement to maintain the extraordinary tax on banking, as well as push forward a series of fiscal adjustments, but will have to look for an alternative plan to maintain the tax that affects the energy sector. This is the result after the negotiation against the clock between the Ministry of Finance, Junts and the PNB to save the two special levies and, at the same time, try to introduce measures to comply with the tax reform committed to Brussels and included in the Recovery Plan. Both the tax on financial entities and the fiscal package will be processed through amendments that the PSOE has introduced in the extremes this Wednesday afternoon in the bill for the minimum rate of 15% that is being processed in the Congress of Deputies, confirm different sources consulted by the ARA.
The PNB and Junts have been the two parties of the investiture block that have shown the most misgivings regarding the permanence of the two extraordinary taxes (the Spanish government needs their votes to push them forward). In fact, the energy tax will not be processed due to Junts’ refusal. “The tax on energetics falls due to factors unrelated to training ruler [al PNB]”, the formation led by Aitor Esteban pointed out in a press release. The Basque nationalists had opened up to accepting this levy if it were agreed upon. The Ministry of Finance, however, has not managed to convince Junts that, after the pressure of companies such as Repsol, which has threatened to freeze planned investments in areas such as Camp de Tarragona, already warned that it would not support a tax that supposes a “fiscal pressure that drives away key investments”, in the words of Junts’ spokesman at the Tarragona City Council. Together, they aspired to a redesign of the tax figure that would open the door for energy companies to apply strong deductions for investments. Now, the unknown is whether Pedro Sánchez’s executive will continue to negotiate to find one formula to process this levy which, as in the case of the banking tax, will expire on December 31.
The bank tax, agreed by the Basque Country
Although the details of the amendments presented, and therefore of the fiscal adjustments, regarding the extraordinary tax on banking are not yet known, the PNB has explained in a press release that it has reached an agreement to its “consultation with normative capacity”. “In this way, it will be regulated by the local tax authorities”, they assured ruler.
Both figures were approved in the summer of 2022 to help alleviate the ravages of the energy and price crisis. At that time, energy companies began to post record profits due to the rise in energy prices, while banking has rubbed its hands in interest rate hikes. A priori, both taxes were temporary, but PSOE and Sumar undertook to review them and make them permanent so that these two sectors contribute more to public coffers.
More measures
The rest of the tax package pending to be detailed includes measures that affect environmental taxation, specifically hydrocarbons, but also tobacco. The PNB, in fact, assures that it has also reached an agreement to “end” fraud in the VAT on hydrocarbons.
