The Ministry of Finance activates the settlement of the new taxes on banks and energy companies with the approval of the respective tax models. The large companies affected, such as CaixaBank, Santander, BBVA, Iberdrola, Repsol or Endesa, among others, have until the 20th of this month to settle the first payment, in advance, and until the 15th if they opt for direct debit. The judicial battle begins now, since the companies and their employers have announced appeals in the courts.
Yesterday, the department of María Jesús Montero received the last procedure, the report of the Council of State, to publish these models and immediately proceeded to approve the ministerial order that is already in force since this Friday. Finance sources specify that the three-day delay is due to the fact that the ministry has preferred to wait for the document from the advisory body. As of today, therefore, the large companies have a little more than two weeks to liquidate and, then, be able to raise the resources that they have prepared. In the Government they assume that all those affected will take the liens to court, using arguments against such as the possibility that double taxation is being considered. For this reason, the Treasury calls these taxes “patrimonial benefits of a public non-tax nature on a temporary basis”.
Large banks and energy companies are required to pay 50% of the benefit before the 20th, which will be reduced from the final amount of the tax in September. The energy companies affected are those "main operators", as can be read in the Treasury order, that carry out activities in Spain for the production of crude oil or natural gas, coal mining or oil refining and that generate, in the year prior to the from the birth of the obligation to pay the benefit, at least 75% of their turnover from economic activities in the field of extraction, mining, oil refining or the manufacture of coke products.
In the case of financial institutions, those concerned are those with an amount of income from interest and commissions corresponding to the year 2019 equal to or greater than 800 million euros. In the event that the obligors form part of a tax group that is taxed under a consolidation regime, the amount will be referred to the consolidated accounts of the tax group.
The banks that have presented their results these days, the tax is applied only for the activity in Spain and not for that of the subsidiaries abroad. CaixaBank has announced this morning that it will have to pay 400 million. In the case of Santander, its president, Ana Botín, estimated the cost of the tax between 220 and 230 million for this year, which "will be accounted for in the first quarter." The CEO of BBVA, Onur Genç, placed the bill at 225 million for his entity. Sabadell, for his part, spoke of 170 million this year. And Bankinter, between 80 and 100 million. This February they will be forced to liquidate half.
The Minister of Finance, María Jesús Montero, affirmed yesterday that "it does not surprise me" that banks and energy companies present a judicial battle. "Whenever the Government implements any type of taxation, we find resources that try to dissuade." "At this time when we have known record benefits from financial institutions, I think it is time to distribute those benefits so that a part of society benefits," added the number two of the PSOE.
