Finally, for the third time, after two extensions last week, the Congressional Finance Commission met on the transposition in Spain of the European directive aimed at establishing a floor of 15% for corporate taxes on multinationals . Even if the third time wasn’t good. At least for the coalition government, because the lack of agreement between its partners reduced to a minimum the fiscal “package” with which it intended to accompany the bill on the minimum tax on large companies.
Pending adoption in the plenary session of Congress this Thursday, the new taxes on banks and energy companies do not benefit from sufficient parliamentary support. Both, designed by the previous executive in 2022 as temporary privileges, will expire at the end of 2024.
The PSOE had proposed “tax reform” before the 2025 General State Budgets (PGE) on the basis of amendments. Initially it planned a special tax on banks, but it removed the tax on energy companies, as agreed by the socialists with Junts and the PNV a few weeks ago. This agreement caused all the socialists’ left-wing partners to react, expressing their opposition and their uneasiness. Between them, ERC or Podemos have made it a red line.
His refusal to support the tax-free “tax package” for energy companies means the 15% minimum tax law will reach the Lower House, including only a handful of tax changes passed by the Finance Committee. Among those that have survived, the tax cuts for SMEs and micro-SMEs or the two-point increase in personal income tax for capital income above 300,000 euros stand out.
Thus, with a lighter tax reform, the transposition of the European Union (EU) directive still remains pending to receive the support of the Finance Committee – MEPs negotiate while the last recess of a Commission which has begun at 5 p.m.— . If the “saying” is definitively approved, it will finally be voted on in the plenary session of Congress this Thursday, where the amendments on taxes on banks and energy companies will have their last chance. Because they are still “alive”, although they are excluded from the “package” that accompanies the bill on the 15% minimum tax on multinationals.
This transposition is also necessary to prevent Spain from being taken to court by the European Commission, but also to release the payment of funds from the EU recovery plan itself.
Negotiations until the last minute
At the start of the Commission, Pilar Valluguera, spokesperson for the CER at the Finance Commission, affirmed that her group was not going to “accept a fiscal package which, due to the inflexibility of the representatives of Repsol and Iberdrola » in Congress — referring mainly to the PNV and Junts —, do not respect the commitment to convert the temporary tax designed in 2022 into a permanent tax on energy companies due to the extraordinary profits obtained by the inflationary crisis.
“If Repsol decided not to pay taxes, we are not going to experience that, especially after the Dana affair. I’m not here to defend businessmen. “We were ready to support a largely subsidized tax, but not to eliminate it,” added Valluguera, who confirmed that his parliamentary group would vote in favor of some specific amendments.
At the last moment, the PSOE tried to save the bank tax, making changes to the initial amendment to make it more attractive to the ERC. In the video you can see one of the PSOE representatives personally asking Valluguera for his support for what is technically called a transactional amendment. Faced with this movement, the Republicans chose to abstain, which was not enough to save this commitment from the coalition government.
“Temporary” taxes on banking and energy companies collected 2,859 million in 2024. This figure is very similar to that of 2023. 1,695 million euros corresponds to public revenues from the record profits of financial entities during the previous year. 1.164 million correspond to large electricity or oil companies.
