The Secretary of Finance of the Generalitat de Catalunya, Marta Espasa, has alerted this morning that part of the taxes ceded by the State to communities such as patrimony and inheritance and donations “have very old and outdated legislation” that generates in many cases “an increase in litigiousness and legal uncertainty”. The head of the Treasury of the Department of Economy of the Generalitat, headed by Natà lia Mas, recalled that the wealth tax dates from 1991 and the inheritance tax from 1987.
The Ministry of Finance made these statements during the inauguration of the seminar “Analysis and perspectives on the autonomous financing model: a legal vision”, organized by the Institute of Self-Government Studies, directed by Joan Ridao. The Generalitat’s criticism of the legal structure of these two taxes (patrimonio and successions and donations) come just when the debate on the appropriateness of the two taxes is kept open, especially the property tax which hardly exists anymore in any country in the European Union.
Espasa has been very critical of a model that should have been reformed in 2014. The Treasury Secretary has explained that a very important part of the debt that the Generaliat carries is due to underfinancing and has recalled that the figure may be similar to the who has calculated the IVIE for Valencia. In this case, 75% of the debt comes from low regional financing.
He has also insisted that the current model does not respect the principle of ordinality. “Catalonia in 2020 is the second community that collects the most and contributes to the State and we end up being the ten community in euros per inhabitant in income received”, he said. “The basic principle of orderliness is broken,” he added.
In the first round table of the morning, Francisco Ademe, from the University of Seville, criticized the maintenance of the financing model of the Basque Country and Navarra. He has opined that work should be done towards harmonization.
