PSOE and United We Can have registered this Thursday in Congress the bill that creates the two new taxes for the banking and energy sectors to finance aid against inflation. These new taxes will not go on profits, as initially expressed, but will focus on the income of the large energy companies and banks for their business in Spain. A rate of 1.2% will be applied to energy companies and 4.8% to banks, which will be charged in 2023 and 2024 for the results of 2022 and 2023.
With regard to energy (electricity, gas and oil), the tax will be applied to the net amount of the turnover, the income of the companies. Those that do not reach 1,000 million euros and those that, having an energy business, do not reach 50% of their turnover, will be exempt.
On the part of the banks, what is taxed is the sum of the net interest (interest collected minus that paid) and the net commissions (commissions collected minus those paid). Banks that exceed 800 million euros in this turnover will have to comply with the tax. This item is taken as a reference because of its link to the daily activity of the bank and because in the financial sector there is no net amount of turnover, as there is in the energy sector.
These taxes will be applied to the results of 2022 and 2023, although they will be collected in the following year. Specifically, it has been set to be paid in September 2023 and 2024 in reference to previous years. This date has been set in order to have the number of closed accounts, which are usually published definitively in the first half of the year. However, a payment on account of 50% will be paid in February based on the estimate that these groups make of their income for the previous year. As already mentioned, 7,000 million revenues are expected in two years.
The rule includes the prohibition of banks and energy companies to transfer these costs to customers. The CNMC and the Bank of Spain will be in charge of ensuring that this does not occur. If appreciated, a penalty of 150% is set on the amounts collected. It will be considered a “very serious” infraction. It is estimated that twenty groups will be affected. It has been decided to take into account, when determining who is affected by the tax, the results of the year 2019, due to the problems that have occurred with the 2020 and 2021 accounts, affected by extraordinary items derived from the pandemic.
www.eldiario.es