by Josep Maria Reichardt 
tax on large fortunes, How to dodge it? The popular saying goes that in Spain there are two types of citizens, the rich and those who pay taxes. This topic has been put on the table as an element of debate since last September. The truth is that you have to be proactive, especially if you are managing a family business and taxes not only affect oneself but affect a good part of the family itself.
This is evident if we analyze the tax burden borne by the 35 Ibex companies which, on the benefits they obtain, does not reach more than 3 or 4%. The rest, up to 35% that should be taxed, responds to all kinds of exemptions and exceptions that appear in the "small print" of the General State Budgets, here the "Grand Master of the Small Print" was Duran i Lleida who from his suite at the Palace and at the service of large companies, put the comma in the wording of the tax laws so that large companies paid less on their income than any retiree. For example, the exemption for double taxation of dividends.
The next category of those that pay less taxes are liberal professionals and businessmen who, from their income, can deduct the expenses they need to obtain this income, including the leasing fees for their Mercedes Benz...
Lastly, there are the large contributors to the state coffers, who are employed workers and pensioners. All their income is declared, they can barely deduct a pittance and, unlike companies and the self-employed, they are taxed two and three times for the same income, for example, they are taxed on the entire income IRPF without being able to deduct the necessary expenses to obtain this income, if they buy any product or service with this income they are taxed IVA that cannot be deducted, when they retire they return to tax the IRPF for the income they obtained while working that has already been taxed and that now allows them to collect the pension, and when their heirs die they must pay inheritance tax...
When the government is made up of right-wing parties, reductions in direct taxes for the richest advance, or what is the same, the advantages of the Welfare state (less schools, less health, fewer roads...). Overall, the rich do not need public schools because their children go to private schools, they do not need public hospitals because they can afford private medicine, they do not need public transportation because they can afford transportation in private vehicles.
When the left govern, they must carry out an exercise in redistributing wealth, although without correcting the bases of social injustice, which in the end results in an exercise in hypocrisy. The conclusion is that the rich are getting richer and there are more and more poor people. As part of this wealth redistribution exercise, the processing of the new tax on large fortunes: the Government has accelerated the procedures and wants to have it ready before the end of the year.
Consultations aimed at tax advisers and lawyers who are experts in tax engineering have immediately been launched to avoid or reduce the tax. There are several tricks:
- splitting, which is nothing more than dividing the assets, if the tax affects fortunes of more than 3 million euros, the family fortune must be divided between two or more people to avoid the tax.
- Family Businesses: the taxation of Family business is very favourable, reaching a 95% exemption in the taxation of assets related to business activity.
In an effort to disguise his hypocrisy the Congress In addition to the taxes on large fortunes, it approves others on banks and energy companies, although we will see if they have any real effect on collection because although initially it was expected that the tax on banks would collect 1.500 million per year and that on energy companies, 2.000 million. However, this second figure will be significantly lower, since an amendment agreed between the Government and GNP it leaves out income from regulated activities. In short, it is a Manichaean exercise of putting next to the great fortunes the companies that benefit the most from the crisis that affects us all, such as banks and energy companies. The three new taxes (banking, energy and large fortunes) have passed their final processing on Thursday, November 24, 2022 in the Congress and they will go to Senate for approval and entry into force on January 1. The Government it has secured the support of its usual parliamentary partners to be able to carry out the new fiscal figures.
Representatives of the wealthy have rejected the measure with 152 MPs voting against it, including the PP, Vox, Citizens, Navarre Sum o Asturian Forum. The norm will pass to the Senate with the rejection of the bench of the right. PP, Vox and Ciudadanos have rejected these measures en bloc and have warned that they can be appealed and annulled in court, arguing that the tax will entail double taxation.
The norm has included new amendments on other fiscal rules. The most prominent is the one that affects tax incentives for the audiovisual production of films and series. Among other issues, the maximum limit remains at 10 million euros in the case of series, although before it was per season and now it will be per chapter. This will benefit, among others, the big streaming platforms for their productions in Spain, such as Netflix, HBO Max o Amazon.
