CECA and AEB are finalizing appeals against the ministerial decision, which they hope to have ready this week
It’s already final. A practically forced movement. The employers of the banking sector – the Spanish Association of Banks (AEB) and the Spanish Confederation of Savings Banks (CECA), are ready to appeal to the National Court against the ministerial decree regulating the taxation of banks that the government intends to raise 3,000 million euros in two years.
Final and almost binding decision of the bank before the tax on the sector with which the government wants to collect 3,000 million euros over two years. Finally, and after weeks of careful analysis, the Spanish Association of Banks (AEB) and the Spanish Confederation of Savings Banks (CECA) will have their appeal ready this week to present the ministerial decree regulating the tax to the National Court.
For weeks now, the legal departments of the country’s main entities have been analyzing the possibilities of avoiding paying a tax that, according to initial calculations, will charge Santander, BBVA, CaixaBank, Sabadell and Bankinter.
At this point, Bankinter’s CEO, María Dólores Dancausa, had been most likely to appeal the tax to the court, even if it was unilateral. The rest of the industry executives also analyzed the measure, without confirming whether they would eventually go to court. Now it is to be expected that they will do this under the umbrella of the bosses.
According to ‘El País’, the idea is that the source will be ready this week. The document would serve to challenge the ministerial decree, which provides the tax return and advance models. But the liquidation of the payment itself must be borne by each entity.
During the latest round of results for the sector, all entities assured that they would have to pay the first part of the payment of the tax weighing 4.8% on the interests (margin and net commissions) of the entities, and then they would decide whether to challenge it or not. February 20 was the deadline imposed by the Treasury for this first payment.
Some organizations such as the IEE, the CEOE think tank, have been anticipating for weeks that the courts will agree with the banks for violating constitutional principles such as legal certainty and generality and equality, by excluding foreign entities operating in Spain, among other things .
Consulted banking sources, however, indicate that if they eventually appeal, they do not want to leave anything to chance. That is, they will go to court if they are very sure of victory.
At this point, the industry has the recent report from the European Central Bank (ECB), in which the monetary body questions several aspects of the tax and indicates that the payout the bank would face would be disproportionate to its profitability. In the same way, the body defended that the banks should be able to pass on the costs to the customers.
Source: La Verdad
I’m Ben Stock, a journalist and author at Today Times Live. I specialize in economic news and have been working in the news industry for over five years. My experience spans from local journalism to international business reporting. In my career I’ve had the opportunity to interview some of the world’s leading economists and financial experts, giving me an insight into global trends that is unique among journalists.
