The economic vice president, Nadia Calviño /
Treasury sets February 20 as the limit for entities to pay the first part of the tax | The second vice president, Nadia Calviño, justifies it by the increase in benefits
With some delay compared to the schedule originally planned, the Ministry of Finance published this Friday the long-awaited ministerial order that establishes the payment of the tax to energy companies and banks for their extraordinary profits in 2022.
Both sectors will be able to start paying the first part of the tax from this same Saturday, February 4. And they cannot be delayed beyond the 20th of the same month, as stated in the document. In the specific case of the financial sector, the five largest banks in the country (Santander, BBVA, CaixaBank, Sabadell and Bankinter) estimate a joint cost of around 1,120 million euros for this tax, which taxes interest at 4.8% (margin and net commissions) of the entities.
However, the figure could vary, given the doubts that still persist about how the volume to be paid should be calculated. The ministerial order itself establishes that, in the event that the amount of the sum of the interest margin and the income and expenses from commissions is not definitively known within the period of liquidation and payment of the advance payment, it will be estimated accordingly. provisionally according to “a reliable calculation method”.
According to estimates made by the sector, the entity most affected would be CaixaBank, with the payment of some 400 million euros. BBVA and Santander will have to face 225 million euros each for the lien, while Sabadell estimates a cost of 170 million euros. For its part, Bankinter calculates an impact of 100 million euros.
The economic vice president, Nadia Calviño, again justified the measure this Friday in the face of a year of sharp rise in profit for the sector. In some cases, such as BBVA and Santander, with profits never seen before. In total, and without taking into account the extraordinary impact of 2021, the large entities with Unicaja obtained profits of 20,849 million euros, which means boosting their profit by 27.86% compared to the previous year.
In Calviño’s opinion, these figures “confirm the appropriateness of having imposed an extraordinary tax on banks.” “The announced benefits make it clear that they have the margin to pay for it without passing it on to their customers. When we see salaries and bonuses, all the more reason », he insisted.
The banks, like the electricity companies, were very aware of this ministerial order to find out the details of how and when they must pay the tax. Especially since many of them are considering using it, once paid.
The CEO of Bankinter, MarÃa Dolores Dancausa, was one of the firmest when announcing that they would appeal the lien when it was announced. And the rest of the managers of the large entities are still studying whether they can do it. But everything indicates that they will also give legal battle.
Administrative burden
As stated in the document, the administrative burden will also be bulky. To begin with, the entities will have to submit models 797 and 798 (795 and 796) to the Treasury in the case of electric companies to make the advance payment of 50% of the tax, which will be subtracted from the final benefit that will have to be paid in September. .
Specifically, the final self-assessment will be presented from September 1 to 20 -with direct debit from September 1 to 15- in electronic format with forms 795 for the temporary energy lien and 797 for the temporary lien of credit institutions and credit financial establishments .
It should be remembered that the amount of the benefit and its advance payment will not be considered as tax-deductible expenses for the purposes of determining the tax base for Corporation Tax.
In addition, the amount of the benefit and its advance payment will not be subject to direct or indirect economic repercussions. In fact, breach of the obligation referred to in the previous paragraph will be considered a very serious infringement and will be penalized with a proportional pecuniary fine of 150% of the amount passed on. This infraction will not have a tax nature and will be subject to the general penalizing administrative regime.
The National Commission for Markets and Competition (CNMC) is responsible for verifying compliance with these obligations as well as, where appropriate, the processing and resolution of sanctioning procedures for breaches thereof.