The Congress of Deputies has approved this Thursday the three new temporary taxes about banks, energy and assets with which the Government intends to raise around 5,000 million euros in each of the two years in which they will be in force, 2023 y 2024 (10,000 million in total). The new taxes on big banks and energy and about assets from three million of euros have gone ahead with 186 votes in favour, 152 against and 10 abstentions. The text has been approved with the votes of PSOE, Unidas Podemos, ERC, EH Bildu, Junts, Coalición Canaria, BNG and other deputies of Mixed Groupdespite the rejection of PP, Citizens and Vox. The deputies of PNV and PDeCat have abstained.
The parliamentary groups that support the Government –PSOE and United We Can– have promoted the urgent processing of this proposed law with the objective that it be definitively approved before December 31 and that the new taxes can enter effective January 1, 2023on income and assets accrued in 2022. After having received the support of the plenary session of Congress this Thursday, the bill passes to the Senate to complete its parliamentary process.
The Government has justified the convenience of these three new taxes on the need to obtain additional resources with which to finance the aid measures for the families and companies most vulnerable to the current energy crisis and inflation. The text, in any case, leaves the door open to evaluate at the end of 2024 the convenience of make these liens permanent.
The socialist spokesman Peter Casares He has justified the tax against a right “that protects the interests of banks and energy companies more than the banks and energy companies themselves.” On behalf of United We Can, Txema Guijarro He has pointed out that the purpose of the taxes is, among other things, to ensure that “those who benefit from a calamitous situation help and pay.” He has also defended that the bill is perfectly legal and has invited the opposition to “explain what principle or legal precept has been violated.”
The PP has voted against this bill and its spokesperson, Gabriel Elorriaga, has warned that the new taxes will be subject to appeals in court. “Most of them are going to be cancelled,” she has predicted. In particular, Elorriaga has referred to the character contrary to the Constitution In his opinion, there is a new tax for assets of more than 3 million euros, as its regulation has been incorporated through an amendment to the bill to create new taxes on banks and energy companies.
These are the new taxes approved today in the plenary session of Congress:
bank tax
This tax will tax with 4.8% the income from commissions and net interest collected by the largest financial entities, whose income from both concepts exceeds 800 million. The tax will tax the income obtained in Spain and will also affect foreign entities with business in the country. From this tax, the Treasury expects to enter 1,500 million in each of the two years in which it will be in force.
tax on energy
It establishes a tax of 1.2% on the energy sales that have a turnover of more than 1,000 million euros and that, in general, obtain at least 75% of their income from extractive activities. The tax will not tax the activities abroad of Spanish multinationals, but those of foreign companies in national territory. During the parliamentary process, the income obtained by companies from regulated electricity and gas rates and, in general, from all regulated activities, has been excluded from the tax base. In principle, the Treasury had planned to collect 2,000 million euros for this tax in each of the two years in which it will be in force.
Patrimony
The new tax dubbed the “temporary solidarity tax on large fortunes” has been configured as a state tax that taxes the net worth starting at three million of euros of natural persons. From the resulting fee for this tax, each taxpayer may subtract what he has previously paid for the wealth tax in his autonomous community. Thus, the new tax will cause higher taxation in Madrid and Andalusia (communities in which the regional wealth tax has been abolished) and in another eight autonomous communities in which there is a lower wealth tax than the state rule for some sections, as is the case of Catalonia. The Treasury estimates that there are 23,000 taxpayers with assets of more than 3 million euros and calculates that the new tax can report to the Tax Agency an additional collection of €1.5 billion each of the two years in which it will be in force.
loss compensation
The bill approved this Thursday in the Congress of Deputies has also incorporated through an amendment a provision that limits to 50% the possibility of compensating in 2023 the losses of subsidiaries. The other half pending compensation will be included in the corporate tax base in equal parts in each of the first ten tax periods beginning on January 1, 2024. It is estimated that this temporary measure will It will affect 3,609 companies, 0.2% of company filers, with a revenue impact of 2,439 million between 2023 and 2024. According to the Treasury, this measure does not imply a tax increase but rather a postponement of the tax benefit that compensation for losses entails.