Barcelona City Hall is proposing to increase tax pressure on the tourism sector. This is what emerges from the proposal for tax ordinances that the Councilor for the Economy, Jordi Martí, presented this morning. Mayor Jaume Collboni listened to the demands of Comuns and ERC, who demanded more fiscal pressure for the sector in exchange for their votes. Votes that the socialist needs to execute ordinances first and budgets second.
Collboni integrated one of the three demands of the Commons: to increase the IBI for luxury hotels. Those of Janet Sanz proposed that all properties whose cadastral value was greater than 5.2 million euros pay the maximum IBI authorized by law: 1.6% against 1% currently. But the council decided to go for a much more modest increase and stay at 1.08%.
This increase will concern 233 establishments in the leisure and hospitality sector, including 208 hotels. To this will also be added those classified as Real Estate with Special Characteristics (BICES) dedicated to tourist activity such as cruise terminals. For them, Collboni proposes a gradual increase over three years to go from the 0.8% they currently pay to 1.3% in 2027. According to municipal calculations, this measure will mean an increase in collection of 4.42 million d by 2025.
The City Hall also highlighted the buses that transport tourists, usually to areas of great interest and tension such as the Sagrada Família or Park Güell. Traffic and a backlog of parked vehicles have caused problems in the neighborhood, and Collboni wants to respond by limiting permits and raising fees.
The municipality wants to introduce a new rate of 35 euros per day to access the central areas of the city. In addition, buses wishing to park near a tourist attraction must obtain a daily permit and have reserved a parking area. All this is added to the public occupancy rate that coaches already pay, but which the municipality wants to increase by 12%. However, the municipality plans to halve the number of buses that will operate in the city and raise 3 million euros instead of one.
Increase in the rate of waste and reduction in the Economic Activities Tax
The only tax change that affects citizens is the waste tax, which will increase between 5 and 10 euros per year. But this is a measure to comply with the law on waste, which determines the existence of a price covering the entire service, according to the town hall. To achieve this, an increase is needed which will place the tax between 32.9 and 51.38 euros per year depending on the category of the accountant of each accommodation.
Existing bonuses will be maintained and others will be added to reward good environmental behavior. For example, there will be a bonus in the IBI for properties equipped with solar panels.
On the other hand, Collboni, in accordance with what he announced a few months ago, proposes to subsidize the tax on economic activities to “attract companies that innovate and engage in knowledge.” Reductions of 50% or more are provided for capital investments above one million. Activities declared to be of particular municipal interest can benefit from 95% bonuses if their investments exceed 5 million euros or if they generate 150 quality jobs. For the moment, the Town Hall has not specified what types of projects would fall into this category.
Start of budget negotiations
These amendments to the ordinances will be presented to the Economy and Finance Commission on October 16 and, from there, they will be presented to the municipal plenary session for approval. Last year, Collboni failed to advance them after being left alone in the vote and had to continue with those of 2023. This year, after integrating the demands of the ERC and the Comuns, we expects the outcome to be different.
The ordinances are the first contact for the vote of the budgets, which this time will take place between December 2024 and January 2025, once the congresses that Junts, ERC and Comuns organize this fall are completed and that, to a good extent, they determine the orientation of the vote of these formations both in the Municipal Council, in the Generalitat or in the Congress.
