The final configuration of the solidarity tax on large fortunes will cause the Treasury to collect at least 20% less than initially estimated, which was 1,500 million a year, according to initial calculations by tax experts consulted by La Vanguardia.
The ministerial order that sets the liquidation criteria, published this Monday in the Official State Gazette (BOE) for its payment in July, benefits wealth from Madrid, Andalusia and Galicia, where the wealth tax is fully or 50% discounted .
The tax legislation contemplates a limit to prevent a tax on wealth from being confiscatory. The property tax and personal income tax quotas cannot exceed 60% of the taxpayer's income. But the tax on large fortunes takes as a limit the amount of the wealth tax without bonus. In this way, a taxpayer from the Community of Madrid (where the full share of Heritage was 1,795 million in 2020), can include this amount in the limit even if they are not currently paying for this tax.
ERC and EH Bildu tried to solve this situation in the Senate via an amendment so that taxes on large fortunes and on wealth would have a "parallel liquidation path". They proposed that they only interact "when setting the fee by deducting the liquid fee paid as equity." The amendment did not go ahead.
José Luis López Hermida, director of KPMG's private client and family business area, explains that the final ministerial order "could imply the application of a reduction in the initial tax rate for large fortunes", which would have an impact on collection. Eduardo Gracia, head of the Ashurst tax area, adds, for his part, that it is a "failure" that was not solved due to "the rush" to close the processing of the new tax.
The Council of State, meeting on June 8, unanimously issued an opinion in which it reflected black on white the problems of the new tax. The advisory body pointed out that, although a ministerial order cannot modify a law, the Government should have taken into account that it is not appropriate "to deduct from the full amount of the tax on large fortunes the corresponding wealth."
A spokesperson for the Tax Agency points out that the ministerial order "complies with the law." Regarding the decrease in collection, he adds that "a potential estimate was made, but it must be taken into account that it is a new tax and we will have to see how it evolves." Socialist sources point out that the objective was for the tax to enter into force before the end of the year in order to settle 2022.
