The Increase in Corporate Income Tax Proposed by the Spanish Government

Published on 30 June 2020

Within the “Restructuring Plan” proposed by the Spanish government, and as declared by various ministers, would be an “unavoidable” increase in the Corporate Income Tax (Impuesto sobre Sociedades or “IS”) in Spain.

The reason for this measure is based on the mantra which the so-called Spanish left has been defending for years: companies are taxed much less than they should be for IS. In this regard, they offer information such as after 2010 in Spain entities pay approximately 3 billion euros less annually than the average of the EU countries, or that the effective rate of large companies is that of only 6%.

It should be noted that said figures come from erroneous premises, since they calculate what was paid in Spain with respect to global profits (that is, they do not take into account taxes paid abroad), and they also do not consider the compensations for losses in previous years, among other tax adjustments.

Despite the above, and based on reasoning that lacks grounds, the proposal from a certain sector of the government is that entities with taxable bases exceeding one million euros pay 35% (currently the general rate is 25%), and as if that were not enough, that said amount be at least 15% of the accounting profit/loss for the year. That is to say, they would not take into account, for example, negative taxable bases (losses).

It is also being prepared that dividends distributed by subsidiaries located abroad to Spain, and which are currently exempt, would be taxed at least 5%. This is no more than a surcharge on profits earned outside our borders. Ultimately, it is another measure that harms the already scarce liquidity of Spanish companies.