Non-residents pay less for capital gains on saving
Rich people having their tax residence outside of Spain will pay less tax than residents in the country for the same gains.
The Government has decided to exclude high-income non-residents of the new super rate of 21% for fear of a possible disciplinary sanction of the Commission, as explained by official sources of the Ministry of Economy and Finances.
The Government has approved that if a resident in Spain gets capital gains on financial investments in excess of 6,000 euros, this will be taxed at a 21% compared to 18%´s current rate. This will result in an increase of 16.6%.
However, if the residence is outside of Spain, even in a tax heaven, the fund manager will withhold 19%, the same rise of one point for Spanish residents with less income.
That percentage represents an increase of 5.5% for non-residents, which the government of José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero considers more reasonable than the 16.6% for their Spanish counterparts.
The maximum rate of 19% is far-fetched in the draft Budget Act of 2010, announcing, 'with effect from 1 January 2010 and remaining in force indefinitely, "a serie of amendments to the text of the Act of Non-Resident Income tax”.
beneficiaries of this lower rise are not only natural persons resident outside Spain but Investment funds or foreign entities operating in Spain which earns dividends, capital gains or interest out of cession of goods´operations.
We aim to be cautious with the judgments of the Court of Justice of the EU against previous tax measures, the Ministry of Finances justifies.
They allude to, say; the decision dated the last day 6 of October, which condemned Spain to infringe the free movement of capital. The EU Court supported the European Commission, who claimed that Spain implemented until 2006 at least 15% to capital gains of the Spanish residents, while non-residents were subjected to a single rate of 35%.
In the tax reform that the Government has just announced, the positive discrimination is not for the Spanish, but for those who live outside. 'The real explanation is the fear of the government to capital flight, "according to several tax experts agree consulted by this newspaper.
In economic crisis, any measures that discourage investment in stock markets or in Spanish financial products are negative. That is the reason which has been explicitly recognised by the Treasury to not alter, for the moment, the taxation of the so-called Sicav, the Variable Capital Investment societies, attributed to the higher wealth of the country.
Direct translation of new published in El Mundo, 12-10-2009 by Maria L. de Castro.