2023-09-04 14:56:40
A greater number of ultra-rich, but a lower percentage of those who pay the Wealth Tax in Spain, a controversial tax that many organizations have long advocated eliminating due to its low revenue potential and the notable differences that are generated for taxpayers by being a figure managed directly by the autonomies.
The data published by the Tax Agency this Monday reveal that the tax affected 231,367 people in Spain in 2021, 5.6% more than the previous year, with a total wealth of 849,214 million euros, 10.5% more. Of the joint number of taxpayers, there are 831 taxpayers who declared a fortune of more than 30 million euros that year. But only 307 – 37% of those ultra-rich – paid it. That is, the remaining 64% got rid of paying it.
It is foreseeable that this situation -which is repeated throughout the entire historical series- is due to the fact that most of the great fortunes of the country have their residence in Madrid, that that year already subsidized 100% of that tax that is levied on value of the assets of natural persons. That is, taxpayers are required to report their net worth, but actually pay nothing.
Some regions such as Andalusia have recently joined this measure applied by the community. And others like Galicia have also become more generous in terms of bonuses. So it is foreseeable that the statistical series will continue to reflect that although the number of ultra-rich rises in Spain, the number of those who do not have to pay anything will also do so, with what this implies for the collection expectations of the Ministry of Finance.
Precisely, the Government devised last year -with the idea of financing the anti-crisis measures and, incidentally, offsetting the bonuses applied in regions governed mostly by the PP-, a temporary tax on the great fortunes of more than three million euro.
Its initial plan was to collect around 1,500 million euros per year in this way, but that objective has remained a dead letter after an error in the drafting of the liquidation model and the application of the so-called tax shield, through which the payment of taxes ( calculated by adding the IRPF quota, Patrimony and the innovative and temporary Solidarity) cannot exceed 60% of the IRPF tax base in any case. If it is exceeded, the quota of the new tribute is reduced up to 80%.
Finally, the great fortunes have been able to calculate in the calculation what they would have had to pay for Equity without bonus, and not only the amount that they would have to pay after applying that benefit. So it has been much easier to reach that 60% that allows access to the deduction. With this backdrop, the new revenue forecast drops to around 700 million euros, less than half the initial target.
In any case, the huge gap between the number of taxpayers affected by the tax and those who finally end up paying it is limited above all to the aforementioned fortunes of more than 30 million euros. In the rest of the sections, the difference is significantly lower. Specifically, and according to data from the Tax Agency, of the 153,733 people who declare that they have between 300,000 euros and 1.5 million euros, practically all of them paid the tax (146,036 people).
And the same happens with slightly higher sections. For example, of those who claim to treasure between 1.5 and 6 million euros (63,385 people), 80.75% paid the tax. And of the 8,368 who say they have between 6 and 30 million euros, they paid 50%, once again demonstrating that the wealthiest are the ones who benefit the most from not having to pay it, living in those regions with tax advantages.
In fact, the data from the Tax Agency indicates that in 2021 there were 20,030 people who had to declare their assets in the Community of Madrid, almost 500 more than the previous year, but who, being exempt from having to pay, caused the region stop collecting some 1,200 million euros.
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