The solidarity tax of large fortunes, one of the star figures approved by the coalition Government to try to harmonize the Wealth tax in all the autonomous communities, has collected 60% less than estimated and has been raffled off by almost 11,000 people heritage, mainly from Madrid, Andalusia and Galicia. It is the balance of the first settlement of the new tax figure that came into force at the end of last year to move towards a “more redistributive” tax system, defended the Executive.
The Ministry of Finance and Public Function calculated in 2022 that the “collection potential” of this tax figure would be “1.5 billion annually,” as observed in the report associated with its launch on the official letterhead. However, the public coffers have received 623 million from the new tax alone, almost 900 million less than initially estimated, around 60% less.
The ministry has another vision and explains that to these 623 million we must add the more than 1,200 million collected by the Heritage tax. Between both figures, they collected 1,868 million euros in 2023. This is how the Treasury explains: “These figures are consistent with the Government's forecasts, which indicated that the potential for collecting the tax on large fortunes reached 1,500 million, under the assumption that all “The autonomous communities will apply a 100% bonus on the Wealth Tax.”
Another gap that affects the new tax can be observed in the high net worth individuals who have finally settled it. The Treasury estimated that it would affect 23,000 potential taxpayers, but finally, in its first year of liquidation, it has barely reached 12,010, according to data released today by the department directed by María Jesús Montero. It has its explanation and is due to the final wording of the tax settlement.
95% of the taxpayers and the tax collection on large fortunes belong to Madrid, Andalusia and Galicia. In this way, 10,302 filers, eight out of every ten, are large assets from Madrid that have contributed 555 million, 90% of the total. They are followed by 865 high-net-worth taxpayers from Andalusia, who have paid 29.7 million; and 91 from Galicia, who have paid a fee of 9.8 million.
In Catalonia, the Treasury registers 322 filers of the new tax on large fortunes who have paid a total fee of 2 million euros. There has been a gap between what was estimated by the Generalitat and the ministry's final balance. Specifically, the Department of Economy calculated that there would be 290 Catalan taxpayers who would pay 12 million euros, 10 million more than what was collected. The team led by Natàlia Mas argues that this decrease in collection is due to an increase in corporate tax in Catalonia that served to "capture" 10 of the 12 million increase in collection with the entry into force of the new large-scale tax. fortunes.
The solidarity tax on large fortunes has been surrounded by controversy since its birth. Both fiscal and political disputes, with the Community of Madrid acting as the spearhead in the judicial field. The Treasury was not immune to this situation and in the ministerial order in which it established the liquidation criteria, it introduced wording that, according to experts, would mean a decrease in collection.
The Treasury's objective was to try to avoid appeals for possible double taxation, since tax legislation contemplates a limit to prevent a tax that taxes wealth from being confiscatory. In this way, property tax and personal income tax payments cannot exceed 60% of the taxpayer's income.
The ministry therefore opened the door for taxpayers from the Community of Madrid, for example, (where the full Wealth quota was 1,795 million in 2020), to include as a limit the wealth tax quota without a bonus. The same has happened with high Andalusian or Galician assets.
That is, although Madrid, Andalusian and Galician taxpayers are not paying for the Wealth Tax, since it is subsidized in their territories, they have been able to include a limit quota in the new tax on large fortunes, explains Eduardo Gracia, head of the Ashurst tributary area. This, in the opinion of the tax expert, has caused this decrease in collection and the lower number of people affected. The majority of those who benefited from the higher bar, adds Gracia, are taxpayers with high assets but not so high incomes.
