The hasty tax on large fortunes

The tax called Temporary Solidarity Tax for Great Fortunes is going to be incorporated into the tax system by a rather atypical procedure.

Thomas Osborne
Thomas Osborne
04 December 2022 Sunday 19:40
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The hasty tax on large fortunes

The tax called Temporary Solidarity Tax for Great Fortunes is going to be incorporated into the tax system by a rather atypical procedure. Instead of starting its journey through the common procedure, through a bill, it has done so through an amendment to the rule that will regulate the establishment of temporary energy charges and credit institutions. This fact is not trivial, because the public debate has been stolen and both the parliamentary procedure and the pronouncement of bodies such as the Council of State have been avoided.

On the other hand, it is practically a copy and paste of the current Wealth Tax, whose competence, as we know, is ceded to the autonomous communities that are the ones who decide its application. But with this new tax there is the following paradox: as it is expected to come into force this year, citizens residing in the autonomous communities that decided to subsidize it in its entirety –Andalusia and Madrid– will find that they must pay it in the event that their assets exceed €3,000,000 and, furthermore, with the aggravating circumstance of barely having room for maneuver to plan a new structure for their assets in such a short term.

But not only the citizens of Andalusia and Madrid will be affected, but also the residents of those other communities in which the marginal rate of the Wealth Tax is less than 3.5%, which is the maximum rate set in the new tax. . Thus, from a certain volume of assets, those who live in Asturias, Cantabria, Catalonia, Galicia and the Region of Murcia, in addition to paying the fee that corresponds to their respective autonomous communities for the transferred tax, must also pay a part of the solidarity tax since the amount resulting from this is reduced by the amount paid in the Wealth Tax.

Nor can we forget that, although our country has never been characterized by having a particularly attractive tax policy for attracting capital from abroad, this new Tax not only does not help in this regard, but, on the contrary, penalizes investment even more. alienation and the establishment of foreigners in our territory. And to make matters worse, we are talking about a type of taxation that is not comparable with that of the countries around us.

In principle, as the amendment is drafted, it seems that the tax will be temporary and applicable, therefore, only in the first two years in which it accrues from the date of its entry into force. If so, if it is approved before the end of this year, it will be paid only for the years 2022 and 2023; but the tax itself is quite a statement of intent and there are suspicions that it could stay in our tax system for longer.

The hurry is never good and less in what affects a tax. The least that can be demanded is that the forms be respected, that is, that the usual channels for the approval of a rule of these characteristics be followed, because, if not, legal uncertainty and uncertainty are generated for taxpayers. And it is that shortcuts do not always lead us to the desired goal.