The Asturian pays double in Inheritance: inheriting 800,000 euros in the Principality costs 103,000, and in other regions between 55,000 and nothing

2023-09-26 04:10:00

A 30-year-old single man who inherits assets from his father in Asturias worth 800,000 euros – of which €200,000 corresponds to the deceased’s habitual residence – will pay Inheritance Tax of 103,135 euros. In any other autonomy, that same person would pay at most a little more than half –55,466 euros if they lived in Aragón, the second community with the most burdensome tax– or would not even pay anything if they lived in neighboring Galicia and Cantabria, or in Andalusia. and Balearic Islands.

The General Council of Economists of Spain has updated its regional tax maps to reflect the regulatory developments introduced by communities such as La Rioja, the Canary Islands, the Balearic Islands and the Valencian Community, which have joined Madrid, Cantabria, Castilla y León, Extremadura, Murcia and the provincial territories of the Basque Country and Navarra in the group of those that practically exempt from taxation the successors of the so-called group II, which are the spouses, descendants, ascendants and adoptees aged 21 or over.

Asturias has not made a move on the Inheritance Tax since in 2017 it raised the exempt minimum for group II heirs to 300,000 euros, which covers the majority of transfers. Since then, almost all communities have introduced reductions, bonuses and increases in the exempt minimums that have turned Asturias into an island of high tax pressure for direct heirs who receive legacies of a certain consideration. Even some communities have already begun to introduce bonuses and reductions for the heirs of groups III and IV, the collaterals (brothers, uncles, nephews…).

The Government of Asturias does not seem willing to enter the race for tax cuts. “Few taxes are fairer than Inheritance,” the new Minister of the Treasury, Guillermo Peláez, told LA NUEVA ESPAÑA last week, while opposition parties and business organizations, with the employers’ association FADE at the head, claimed ” pay the same taxes as other Spaniards”.

Asturias is, furthermore, one of the regions in which the exempt minimum of 700,000 euros in the case of the Wealth Tax has not changed, on which, in some cases (ten taxpayers this year) the new Temporary Tax is superimposed. of Solidarity of the Great Fortunes.

This fiscal panorama is reflected in the report “Taxation of wealth: state of the art”, presented yesterday by the General Council of Ecomomists. Its president, Valentín Pich, stated: “If we consider that Spain has a completely globalized economy, that the Wealth Tax is anecdotal in all tax systems and presents technical and equity problems in our territory, it would be reasonable to eliminate it. although a different case is that of Inheritance which, although it is also subject to debate, with certain changes it can play a redistributive role and to strengthen equal opportunities”.