Bank employers appeal to the Court the tax on "extra benefits"

The two main banking associations, the AEB and the CECA, have filed contentious-administrative appeals before the National Court to challenge the ministerial order in which the declaration and advance payment models of the new tax on banks are approved, according to sources of the employers

The associations, which do not request precautionary measures, charge against a tax that they consider to be discriminatory, harmful to competition and ill-conceived, by addressing income and not another accounting figure such as profit.

The tax, created by the Government in response to the “extraordinary profits” of the banks as a result of the rise in interest rates after the invasion of Ukraine, is charged to last year’s income, but will have accounting effects on the results of banks in 2023.

These resources inaugurate the judicial front of the bank against the new tax. The banks also plan to appeal separately the tax settlements as the Ministry of Finance processes them. There is also a third open front, which is the complaint filed with the EU by a private lawyer, which has been admitted for processing. The lawyer considers that it contravenes European law.

The recourse to the tax opens a fast track that will allow the complaint to be brought to the Supreme Court more quickly. Banks cannot appeal to the Constitutional Court the law approved at the end of last year, but they can litigate with the regulatory developments and the effects of the tax on their business.

This tax is applied to entities that invoiced more than 800 million in 2019 and is equivalent to 4.8% of income, both in interest margins and commissions. It also affects only the activity that banks carry out in Spain and will not apply to any foreign entity, since none of them reached the threshold of 800 million in 2019.

With this measure, the Government aspires to collect 3,000 million euros in the two years of its application. The banks have estimated their impact in 2023 at 1,125 million euros, on profits in Spain last year of 7,289 million euros. In their presentations of results, the CEO of Bankinter, María Dolores Dancausa, and the president of Santander, Ana Botín, were the most forceful in announcing the resources. “It is our fiduciary obligation,” Botín said, referring to the shareholders.

For AEB and CECA, the tax also affects the ability of entities to provide credit and could have consequences for financial stability. “It will not achieve its objective of fighting inflation and, furthermore, it will hinder economic recovery and job creation, in a context of rising prices and geopolitical tensions,” they say.

CaixaBank, with the greatest weight in Spain, will be the bank most affected by the tax, with 400 million euros. It will cost Santander between 220 and 230 million, compared to 225 million for BBVA. In the case of Sabadell, the amount will be 170 million, compared to 100 million for Bankinter and 85 million for Unicaja.