The Government of the Generalitat has approved today to raise the wealth tax in Catalonia retroactively to January 1 to "capture" the 12 million euros of extra collection derived from the new state taxes on large fortunes. Without this modification, the extra collection would go to the State and not to the Generalitat.
In this way, the tax burden of high incomes is raised by around 2% through the Wealth Tax. The Generalitat estimates that the taxpayers affected by this increase are around 290. The Government has reported that these changes will be valid for two years, allowing the collection of this tax to remain in Catalonia instead of going to the Spanish Treasury. Its validity will be linked to the existence of the new state tax, which initially has an expected duration of two years.
The new tax rate that is proposed involves creating a new tranche from the 20 million euros of assets that will be recorded with a rate of 3.48%. This will generate a collection of 12 million euros for the Generalitat that, otherwise, the affected taxpayers would pay to the Spanish Treasury.
Although the main objective of the new state tax was to tax high net worth in those communities where the regional tax was subsidized to 100%, the high tax rates have caused some taxpayers in communities such as Catalonia to see their tax bill increase.
In 2020, Catalonia collected 547 million on account of wealth tax in 2020, the latest with available data. According to Fedea estimates, the new tax will obviously affect communities that have 100% discount, such as Madrid or Andalusia, but also nine other regions where it is already paid: Galicia, Asturias, Cantabria, Murcia, the Balearic Islands, Navarra and País. Basque.
In the case of Catalonia, for example, Fedea calculates that the state tax will be activated for taxpayers with assets of more than 17.5 million. The projections made by Funcas and Fedea on how much a taxpayer in Catalonia should pay for this new tax with a heritage of 40 million rises to more than 168,000 euros. It is 17% more than what they paid so far for Patrimony.
