The government reaffirmed this week its intention to present budgets for the next financial year, accounts that will be accompanied by a fiscal package that will include well-known initiatives, such as the extension of taxes on banking and energy companies, but which could also incorporate “another issue.”
The President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, has already made progress in opening the political path that The next 2025 budgets will focus on progressive taxationwith taxes falling more heavily on those who “already have enough money in the bank to live a hundred lives.”
This future fiscal package could include new features, admitted this week the First Vice President and Minister of Finance, María Jesús Montero, who recalled that there are also initiatives pending consideration in Congress and that the future budget project for 2025 will be based on a expected increase in collection of 6.5%.
Banking and energy privileges await
Treasury sources confirmed to EFE that they continue working on the conversion of extraordinary taxes on banks and energy into permanent taxesa commitment that was part of the investiture agreement with Sumar and which will hardly be respected before the end of the year due to parliamentary deadlines.
The conversion of these levies into taxes – instead of non-tax benefits in the public domain, as is currently the case – This must be regulated in a specific lawas happens with all new taxes.
This implies that the creation rules must traverse the whole ordinary legislative procedure: approval in the Council of Ministers in the form of a draft law, passage through the advisory bodies, return to the Council for approval in the form of a draft law and entry into the Cortes, where its processing takes several months.
These deadlines could be shortened.i The initiatives are included in the bills initiated by the parties, since they would reach Congress directly without going through the Council of Ministers or the consultative bodies, although for the moment this possibility has not been raised.
A temporary solution for prevent the direct debits from disappearing once the amounts corresponding to the 2023 financial year have been paid -and that they remain in force next year, as the Treasury plans – would mean approving an extension, as was done last year, when the validity of these benefits was extended from two to three years.
Energy corporate tax taxes unregulated income in Spain at 1.2% and in the banking sector, the intermediation margin stood at 4.8%, which allowed a total of 1.455 million to be collected in the first half of the year (corresponding to the February advance, half of the annual fee): 612 and 844 million, respectively.
Corporate Tax in Congress
Among the clues Montero gave about the new tax package were his reference to projects already presented to Congress and guarantee the “yield” of taxeswhich seems to point the finger at the reform of corporate tax, a figure which includes “numerous deductions which sometimes make a hole in this tax”, he stressed.
The PSOE has proposed a Amendment to the Anti-Crisis Measures Act in which he proposed changes to corporate tax to counteract the effect on perception of the Constitutional Court’s annulment of the 2016 tax reform, which concerned issues such as the compensation of negative tax bases or deductions for double taxation.
The deadline for amendments to this law closes in March.But after accepting his summons to the plenary session of Congress that same month, his treatment has not progressed, so possible changes to the corporate tax continue to wait.
“Any other questions”
Along with the tax changes already proposed, the vice president noted that her department is “continuously reviewing and exploring where there is capacity to “those with greater economic capacity contribute to a greater extent”which opens the door to “other questions that could be raised in the coming months.”
These comments echo those of the President of the Government, who recommended “more public transport and fewer Lamborghinis”and although Montero did not reveal whether he plans to apply a figure or revise existing ones, he warned that it could be aimed at both individuals and companies.
Large assets are currently taxed, in addition to personal income tax, by the wealth tax, managed by the autonomous communities, and by the wealth tax. solidarity tax on large fortuneswhich acts as a complement to guarantee taxation in regions benefiting from a wealth tax subsidy.
