The countdown sounds. This Wednesday ends the deadline to present amendments to the bill aimed at guaranteeing minimum taxation for multinationals. This is the Trojan horse normative that the government wants to use to execute, at least, part of his tax reform. But it is stifled by the different interests of the parliamentary groups and allies of the inauguration of Pedro Sánchez, who they endanger the future of taxes on energy companies and banks.
The intention of the coalition executive is to make these two taxes, currently temporary, permanent. However, strong opposition is felt not only from the economic sectors concerned, but also from the PNV and the Junts. SO, The government has opened itself to reducing the impact of the two taxes in its structure or even through bonuses.
This is what sources close to these negotiations indicate. We must not forget that the introduction of these bonuses was already planned by the Ministry of Finance in any case. At the time, it indicated its intention to introduce deductions from energy tax for companies that made investments in green technologies or those that facilitate the energy transition.
own Carlos’ bodyMinister of the Economy, admitted on Tuesday that it will be necessary to adapt the temporary energy and banking tariffs when making them permanent.
That is to say, it is necessary to evaluate “additional elements” it no longer has anything to do with the emergency situation of two years ago, when both taxes were activated due to energy inflation and skyrocketing interest rates.
These contexts no longer exist and the Government wishes to introduce new details into the calculation of these taxes. Corps, for example, specified that it would be valued the “high” investment effort in the case of energy companies.
And in the case of the character intended for the banking sector, the socialists want him to adapt to interest rate cycles (which are down at the moment). This is a debate that even the Spanish governor and former government minister has entered into.José Luis Escriváwhich recommends allowing the updating of the provisions of financial entities so that the tax is as neutral as possible.
However, it remains unclear what formulas Treasury will use to shape these two taxes permanently. From the department of María Jesús Montero, they only confirm that there is intense negotiations involved.
Regardless of how the two tax figures are reflected in the amendments, the parties’ positions are very clear…at least for now. The PNV requires that both taxes be part of the regional agreement, so that You can handle them at will in the Basque Countrya territory that serves as headquarters for giants like Iberdrola or Kutxabank.
This is a possibility that regions such as Andalusia and Aragon have already protested against and called it unfair competition, since it would allow the Basque Country to attract investments within the framework of a better taxation.
Junts is also opposed to this, because this possibility would jeopardize investments in the energy sector in Catalonia. Particularly, the 1.1 billion that Repsol has already threatened to withdraw if the tax is maintained.
The Catalan separatists intend to be the most difficult to convince, as is usual in Congress. They have clearly expressed their position against the energy tax and it is not clear that the bonuses envisaged by the Ministry of Finance can change this position.
On the other side of the scale are the rest of the investiture partners, the space to the left of the PSOE. Sumar, ERC, EH Bildu and Podemos call for the maintenance of the two taxes with their current impact. Those of Ione Belarra even claim to increase its effect.
It should be remembered that these tax figures generated revenues of nearly 3 billion euros annually since its launch. However, this only constitutes part of the tax reform that the government wishes to implement and to which it has committed to the European Commission. What will be the elements? Difficulties in generating sufficient parliamentary support will determine the decision.
On the one hand, the Treasury wants to introduce a measure that the Ministry of Health has agreed with the autonomous communities to finance the anti-tobacco plan: tax electronic cigarettes or vapes that contain nicotine.
In addition, the Executive proposes, as this newspaper has already announced, measures such as review fuel taxationnotably diesel (to make it go up), and tax advantagesincluding certain deductions and even reduced VAT rates.
This is part of the measures contained in the white paper on tax reform drawn up two years ago. However, there are serious doubts about the support of the investiture partners for the amendments in this direction.
We must not forget that the Government will also take the opportunity to resurrect the limits on large business deductions in corporate tax imposed by Cristóbal Montoro and which the Constitutional Court annulled earlier this year.
In any case, even if the deadline for introducing amendments ends this Wednesday, the negotiations in this regard do not. The processing of the project and its amendments will still have to go through the Finance Commission and the plenary session of Congress, which leaves a few weeks of leeway for the Executive.
