Finally, on the third occasion, after two extensions last week, the Congressional Finance Commission was held on the transposition in Spain of the European directive to establish a 15% floor for the corporate tax of multinationals. Although the third time was not the charm. At least for the coalition Government, because the lack of agreement between its partners has reduced to a minimum the fiscal “package” with which it intended to accompany the Bill on the minimum tax on large companies.
Waiting to go through the Plenary Session of Congress this Thursday, the new taxes on banks and energy companies do not have sufficient parliamentary support. Both were designed by the previous Executive, in 2022, as temporary taxes, and expire at the end of 2024. The Government has just over two extra days to negotiate the last opportunity to introduce these two taxes via amendments, but the photograph that has left this afternoon’s commission makes clear the Government’s difficulties in bringing partners on the left and right to an agreement.
The Government does not even have the votes guaranteed to pass the opinion on the corporate tax reform after a crazy session in the Finance Commission that at the end of the day had not yet concluded. ERC’s refusal to approve any text that did not include the tax on energy companies forces the socialists to look at the PP, which had advanced that it would give its votes if the text came out clean, without the amendments proposed by the left. The groups have given themselves until 11:00 p.m. to negotiate and vote again.
The PSOE had proposed the “tax reform” prior to the 2025 General State Budgets (PGE) based on amendments. Initially, it included the special tax on banks, but dropped the tax on energy companies, as agreed by the socialists with Junts and PNV a couple of weeks ago. This agreement made all the partners on the left of the socialists react, showing their opposition and discomfort. Among them, ERC, EH Bildu or Podemos have turned it into a red line.
The “temporary” taxes on banking and energy companies have collected 2,859 million in 2024. This figure is very similar to that of 2023. 1,695 million euros correspond to the public income obtained from the record profits of financial entities during the previous year. , and 1,164 million corresponds to large electricity or oil companies.
His refusal to support the “fiscal package” without the tax on energy companies means that the Law on the minimum tax of 15% would reach the Plenary Session of the Lower House including just a handful of changes in taxes that have passed in the Commission of the Treasury. Among those that have survived, the tax cuts for SMEs and micro-SMEs stand out or the increase of two points in personal income tax for capital incomes higher than 300,000 euros.
Also left along the way are the elimination of tax privileges for SOCIMIs, taxes on insurance premiums, the increase in the diesel rate…
In this way, with the tax reform slimmed down, the transposition of the European Union (EU) directive is still pending to receive the support of the Finance Commission – the deputies are negotiating while a last recess of a Commission that began to 5 p.m.—. If the “dictum (in parliamentary jargon)” comes out definitively tonight, it will finally be voted on in the Plenary Session of Congress this Thursday, where the amendments on taxes on banks and energy companies would have their last chance. Because they are still “alive”, despite having fallen out of the “package” that accompanies the Bill on the 15% minimum tax on multinationals.
By the way, this transposition is necessary to prevent Spain from being prosecuted by the European Commission, and also to unblock the disbursements of the funds from the Recovery Plan of the EU itself.
Negotiations until the last minute
At the beginning of the Commission, Pilar Valluguera, the ERC spokesperson on the Finance Commission, argued that her group was not “going to accept a fiscal package that, due to the inflexibility of the representatives of Repsol and Iberdrola” in Congress — referring mainly to PNV and Junts—, fails to comply with the commitment to convert the temporary tax that was designed in 2022 for the extraordinary benefits achieved by the crisis into a permanent tax on energy companies. inflation.
“If Repsol has decided that it is not going to pay taxes, we are not going to go through that, especially after a Dana. I am not here to defend businessmen. “We were willing to support a widely subsidized tax, but not to withdraw it,” added Valluguera, who did confirm that his parliamentary group would vote in favor of some specific amendments.
At the last moment, the PSOE has tried to rescue the banking tax, adding modifications to the original amendment to make it more attractive to ERC. In the video, you can see one of the PSOE representatives personally asking Valluguera for support for what is technically known as a transactional amendment. Faced with this movement, the Republicans have chosen to abstain, like EH Bildu or BNG, which has not been enough to save this commitment from the coalition government.
The PSOE has made this move at the last minute, with six transactional amendments that the groups have practically read while they had to vote on them. But that has only served to make four minor specific modifications. The procedure has angered some of the deputies who were present in the committee. “This is crazy,” complained a right-wing parliamentarian as he left the room during a recess.
The comings and goings have not ended there. The groups have finally voted on the amendments. But before voting on the opinion, the PSOE has asked for a new recess for the last attempt at a negotiation that endangers the entire text. At 10:00 p.m. this Monday, the deputies were still negotiating.
“That the commission in which the future state prosecutor is being decided is stopped for 3 hours and resumes at 11:00 p.m. is another example of the short game of some and the disorder of this legislature,” the spokesperson lamented in from the PNV, Aitor Esteban.
Source: www.eldiario.es
