MADRID, 31 Mar. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Tax Agency has so far recorded an extraordinary refund for an amount that exceeds 300 million euros in Corporate Tax linked to the ruling of the Constitutional Court in which it declares unconstitutional some measures of the royal decree-law approved in 2016 by the Government of Mariano Rajoy to increase revenue through this tax.
As a novelty for the month of February, the Treasury has explained in the collection report that the decrease in the collection of Corporate Tax of 29.6% compared to February 2023, reaching 467 million, is due to extraordinary refunds of an amount of just over 300 million, as a consequence of the declaration of unconstitutionality and nullity of some sections of laws promoted for this tax by the Government of Mariano Rajoy.
In mid-January, the Constitutional Court (TC) unanimously agreed to declare unconstitutional some measures of the royal decree-law approved in 2016 by the Government of Mariano Rajoy to increase collection through Corporate Tax, considering that these types of modifications do not They can be introduced via royal decree-law.
The modifications to the Corporate Tax referred to in the TC include the establishment of more severe limits for the compensation of negative tax bases; the introduction ‘ex novo’ of a limit on the application of deductions for double taxation; and the obligation to automatically include in the tax base the impairment of shares that have been deducted in previous years. The first two measures are only applicable to large companies, while the third can affect any taxpayer of this type of tax.
In this sense, the court of guarantees has reiterated its doctrine, in which it establishes that a decree-law cannot alter either the general regime or those essential elements of taxes that affect the determination of the tax burden, which must be assessed. depending on the tax concerned, the elements affected by the modification and its scope.
Thus, the magistrates have concluded that the challenged measures have had a “notable impact” on structural elements of a fundamental piece of the tax system such as the Corporate Tax, affecting the essence of the duty to contribute of those liable for this tax. , which is why it has determined that they should be declared “unconstitutional and void.”
Recently, the first vice president and Minister of Finance, María Jesús Montero, has indicated that she still does not have concrete figures of the total impact of this ruling. However, she has criticized that some of the measures that the Rajoy Government and Minister Montoro “improvised” “are having a high cost for the Public Treasury.”
“One of these days we will surely have the opportunity to convey the cost to the current Government of many of the measures that have been declared illegal or, at least, not in accordance with the law, by Mr. Montoro’s Government,” he said. Montero pointed out.
