Arnica from the Government for Iberdrola, Naturgy or Endesa. The negotiation between the Government, PNV and PDeCAT yesterday led to the approval in extremis of two transactional amendments in the Economic Affairs Commission of Congress according to which the net amount of the turnover for the determination of the tax is excluded that corresponding to regulated activities , at the same time that it is established that the tax is applied only to the activity carried out by the companies in Spain. Two variations that will substantially reduce the amount to be paid.
This agreement also makes it possible for the tax not to affect the companies that provide the supply at a regulated price, which is the case with the PVPC for electricity, the TUR for gas and LPG, both bottled and piped. The movement caused a sigh of relief in the companies yesterday, after last Tuesday the PSOE and Podemos rejected all the amendments presented.
Internal sources of the affected companies explain the surprise that the magnitude of the initial veto was for the sector, and explain the change of position staged yesterday in two ways. In the first place, due to the task of persuasion of the Ecological Transition on the Treasury, as Teresa Ribera was aware of the impact on investments that a total refusal to sweeten the tax would imply. Secondly, they go to the links of companies especially affected with the PNV.
For example, a very significant percentage of the future investments recently presented by the firm chaired by Ignacio Sánchez Galán in its Strategic Plan will have a traction effect on Basque SMEs.
The group of companies integrated into the Aelec employers’ association also warned the Executive that going ahead with the original tax could generate costs due to a judicial prosecution of the issue.
As a result of this agreement, the exemption also includes regulated income from the transmission and distribution networks of electricity and natural gas, which account for the vast majority of the business of Red Eléctrica and Enagás. The large electric companies also have a regulated distribution business. Generation with regulated remuneration and remuneration in non-peninsular territories are also left out.
The Executive has also reached another agreement with Bildu, which is in line with the fact that by the end of 2024, the date on which the two years of the entry into force of these taxes have elapsed, results will be evaluated to study the possibility of their being permanent. . The result of this agreement also opens the way for the management of these taxes to fall on the foral and Basque estates.
Through another amendment of the PSOE and Unidas Podemos, companies that are engaged in oil, natural gas or coal mining activities will be considered main operators in the energy sectors, provided that they generate at least 75% of their volume of business related to the extraction, mining or refining of petroleum.
The energy tax is based on the imposition of a rate of 1.2% on the net amount of the annual turnover of companies in the sector with a turnover of more than 1,000 million euros per year. From this turnover we must now discount the regulated business by virtue of the amendment approved yesterday. The initial objective was to enter 4,000 million euros in the same two years, a figure that will be greatly reduced as a result of the application of the aforementioned amendment.
The European Commission, for its part, starts by taxing the so-called extraordinary profits at 33%, understood as those that exceed by 20% the annual average registered by each company between 2019 and 2021, giving rise to a collection that, if limited to Spain, it would be much less
In other words, the concepts that make up the tax bases of the Spanish and European tax differ from each other, something that could give rise to some litigation.
Basque quota
Also yesterday the Five-Year Basque Quota Law was renewed, where an imputation index of 6.24% is maintained, which brings with it a provisional contribution from the Basque Country to the State of 1,472 million euros. This has also been the result of the negotiation between the Government and the PNV, to avoid the amendment to the entire General State Budget for next year.
An agreement was also reached so that Basque haciendas can collect two new environmental management taxes. These are the special tax on non-reusable plastic containers and the tax on the deposit of waste from landfills, incineration and co-incineration of waste. In addition, the Economic Agreement will be adapted to the changes in the tax on fluorinated greenhouse gases.
