This Thursday, the plenary session of Congress decides on the future of tax reform in a vote full of unknowns. The parliamentary support obtained by the PSOE and Sumar should be taken with a grain of salt, and the final vote of Podemos is not yet closed. A scenario full of uncertainties and fiscal insecurity which translates into legal insecurity. A situation which, according to Spanish business sources, causes the flight of billions of euros of investments.
The parliamentary groups themselves protested against the style of negotiation used during the tax reform. “The government behaves as if it were a fish market“, protested Gabriel Rufián himself, spokesperson for the ERC.
A market whose prices are not even closed. The government hopes to have secured enough support to ensure that what was approved by the Lower House Finance Committee can at least be implemented.
Europe Press
That is to say the additional tax for multinationals, the increase in taxation on tobacco, the elimination of corporate tax deductions for large companies and measures against fraud in the field of hydrocarbons .
Among other measures, the Commission’s opinion did not include bank tax. However, the plenary also voted again on including this measure in the legislative draft as an amendment. It is assumed that after the agreement reached with the nationalist parties of the right and the left, the tribute should prosper.
But, to do this, the Government has committed to ERC and EH-Bildu to approve, if necessary, a royal decree to extend the tax on energy companies until 2025which was ruled out until Monday evening and whose details and design are unknown.
But there is more. In plenary session, certain amendments already rejected by the groups will also be voted on. like the fiscal equalization of diesel with gasolinea measure that the PSOE insists on and which is a demand from the European Commission. And if it sneaks, it sneaks.
Business representatives are protesting against this situation. Lorenzo Lovepresident of the Association of Independent Workers (ATA) and vice-president of the CEOE, described the parliamentary negotiations as an open “auction”. The reform proposes “ideological taxes” which generate “enormous legal insecurity”. “There is no clear roadmap and it’s all ideology, short-term vision and ideation.”
The Círculo de Empresarios, for its part, warns of the impact that all this can have on investment. “Irresponsibly targeting individual sectors of parliamentary institutions for casual political convenience generates negative impact on the world of financial reputation which results in an immediate loss of value on the markets, rarely recovered in the long term.
In a press release, the association recalls that “at the beginning, it was about banks and energy companies, but then the risk of taxes ad hoc has expanded to sectors
construction, socimis, hydrocarbons, private health insurance, etc. With 40 days to go before the end of the year, many companies are unaware of the tax framework applicable for the year 2025.“.
In this context, let us recall that “the proliferation of tax figures of dubious quality and legal technique transforms the corporate tax system into a deterrent puzzle for your activity“.
The Spanish Energy Club advises at this address. He think tank of the sector warns that the extension of the tax on energy companies ““this will make it difficult” to realize more than 30 billion euros of investments for the next three years.
For her part, the president of the Spanish Banking Association (AEB), Alejandra Kindelanhe warned, questioned in the 24 hour channelthat the bank tax, the design of which was changed at the last minute, will have a significant negative effect on economic growth.
“We are talking about very significant impacts, not on the banks, but on the ability to finance families and businesses in the country.“, he warned.
Juan Carlos Escotet, president of Abanca, joined these criticisms during his participation in the VII Congress of the Association for the Progress of Management (APD) this Wednesday. He insisted that the banking tax “drains capital and resources” from the sector, harming the “ability to offer credit”.
But he went further and charged at “hyperregulation”which constitutes their “major concern”, because it reduces the ability of businesses to grow and compete. In fact, “20% of the interest and fee margin is consumed in regulatory and supervisory costs.”
In fact, for the head of the Galician entity, this enormous amount of regulation fuels the complex international geopolitical situationone of the biggest problems businesses face.
“THE capital flight of the European Union exceeds 200 million euros each year, or 1.8% of European GDP, and is a matter of hyperregulation”, lamented Escotet.
Regulatory excesses further aggravated by the tax market, full of questions, that Congress has become. This Thursday we will know how the season ends. fishing in the tributaries.
