He Government discounts that it will extend the so-called tax on banks with the twin tribute to the sector andenergetic today in the air when it goes down Junts will not support any initiative that threatens investments in Catalonia. The weak point of the tax is on the energy side. Junts per Catalunya announced yesterday through its spokesperson in Congress, Míriam Nogueras, that the party would not support the rate due to the risk of leakage of 1.1 billion from Repsol in Tarragona. This complicates the arithmetic of the Executive to carry out the rule, which requires a simple majority – more votes in favor than against.
The intention was to extend both figures through amendments to the regulations that establish the Minimum taxation of multinational groups and national groups at 15%. If Junts’ support declines, the Government would lose one of its options to legislate it, which is why it has decided to extend the amendment deadline until the 30th, seeking to balance parliamentary support.
The another option that gains strength Now it is for the Government to legislate the tax through a Royal Decree Law, an alternative that, according to knowledgeable sources, would at least allow it to be extended and gain time to find new formulas to include it in the tax system permanently. In both scenarios there is also the possibility that both rates, energy and banking, go hand in hand or are presented as separate formulations that they do not mortgage one tribute if the other declines.
In this case, it also remains to be seen if the Executive decides to maintain the tax on the energy sector as it is or if it modifies it. The different companies are already pressing to have taxation that allows them tax relief through, for example, ‘green’ investments. In this sense, Aelec, the electricity companies’ association, assures that the current model is “inconsistent” with European regulations, since it affects all energy companies equally, while the European solidarity contribution “is taxed only on oil companies, coal and gas”.
The bank refuses the political card
The banking sector, like the energy sector, flatly and angrily rejected the tax and took it to court to overthrow it, but the opposition has not been staged in a public forum since the Executive announced days ago that it will perpetuate it, contrary to its formulation. initial that it would be an extraordinary rate and valid for 2023 and 2024.
It is not clear that the political card is being played either through government partners who can give in with the forcefulness expressed by Repsol, whose threat to relocate investments has placed the future of the energy tax on a certain standby, they indicate to elEconomista.es political observers.
These sources assume that Moncloa will remove the bank lien, although with a less questioned design than the current one. The Executive set a rate of 4.8% on banking commission and interest income, arguing that entities had to contribute to paying aid to groups affected by the crisis with the extraordinary benefit generated by the rate increase.
He sector rejected the largest explaining that rates have been “normalized” After several years in unusual negative territory, they denounced that this formula incurs a double taxation when taxing incomethey warned that the tribute would end damaging credit and disapproved of the asymmetry of forcing taxes ononly to large Spanish banks – does not apply to foreign entities or fintech nor to those others whose income in 2019 was less than 800 million.
The Minister of Economy, Carlos Body, has advocated these days for the need to “adapt” the figure that was temporary taking into account that the financial, credit, interest rate cycle It will not always be at the current point, which represents a clear change in the design.
He governor of the Bank of Spain and former Minister of Public Function and Digital Transformation, José Luis Escrivá, also advocated in a recent interview to achieve that “be as neutral as possible” and warned about the risk posed by not considering provisions, higher in some businesses such as financing for SMEs.
At first glance everything seems open, but the indications of both would coincide with a tax on the profitinstead of income, that does not discriminate based on size or penalize national banks over foreign banks. Paradoxically, the tribute It began to be applied when the Euribor was around 3.3 and today it is close to 2.7%, what dwould per se mount the thesis of taxing “extraordinary” resultsespecially when rates are now falling. The current rate also applies to all income and not to the increase in income after the rate increase, contrary to the idea of applying taxation to the extra income collected from the movements of the ECB.
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