The company of Ibex 35, Marlineconsiders different scenarios and emergency plans to defend its shareholders, customers and employees after the PSOE and Sumar Pact which proposes the abolition of the special tax regime for sociimiincluding taking legal action. This was expressed through a statement sent this Wednesday to National Securities Market Commission (CNMV).
On Tuesday, the company’s shares fell 7.3%. The announcement of the agreement of the parties of Sánchez Government This also affected other businesses such as Colonial.
Although Merlin assures that he has no proof that from today the tax agreement between the PSOE and Sumar will have “sufficient political and technical consensus for its approval”, the company will calculatein the short term, the impact in cash in the cash flow of said tax proposal, which, in any case, provides that it is “limited” by the joint effect of various tax rules.
In other words, the Ibex 35 company is preparing for the worst scenario after Tuesday’s stock market crash. On the other hand, the company recalls that SOCIMI are equivalent in Spain to real estate investment fund (REITs) and denounces that the tax changes introduced in the PSOE-Sumar agreement “represent, in practice, the elimination of the regime SOCIMI.
In the medium and long term, Merlin will focus its evaluation on determining the measures to adopt to safeguard the interest of shareholderscustomers and employees, without excluding legal measures.
Merlin does not rule out legal measures
Thus, Merlin assures that different scenarios will be considered “without excluding any legal possibility within its reach”. The company defends that there is a “clear” economic justification for the Spanish version of the international REIT regime, “based on the introduction into the market of active business structures, with means and personnel directly involved in the activity (as opposed to funds), which are responsible for the promotion, construction, acquisition and operation of the necessary infrastructure.” for different economic sectors (offices, shopping centers, logistics, data centers, hotels, car parks or telephone towers)”.
All this, he specifies, “with daily liquidity and as a form of savings popular with individuals and essential to the proper functioning of pension funds, investment funds, mutual funds, investment companies, etc. insurance, family offices and sovereign funds.
As Merlin pointed out, the tax regime The current state of Socimi allows the elimination of double taxation, while “guaranteeing in a balanced manner a certain level of effective taxation, the timely distribution of benefits and profitability savers and investors.
“This diet is a great asset for him economic growth Spaniards”, defended Merlin, who criticized the fact that the link between SOCIMI and housing is repeatedly used as an argument, either because of the rise in prices or because of the current restriction of supply in Spain.
“The reality is that neither Merlin nor any of the three other SOCIMI currently listed on the Stock Exchange Continuous market operate in the housing sector, as do many international REITs with which we compete,” he noted.
In this sense, Merlin emphasizes that the current legislation on the SOCIMI regime “does not even mention the word accommodation» in the articles, therefore “it seems clear that the legislator did not want to link this special regime to residential market», Specifies the company.
The tax agreement concluded between the PSOE and Sumar toughens the taxation of SOCIMI, currently exempt from corporate tax in certain sections. According to the agreement, this decision by the government parties is due to the fact that these companies “pay only 1% corporate tax” and, despite the tax advantage, “it has not served to improve the supply housing”.
