UNDER REGISTRATION

  • MARÍA HERNÁNDEZ |

    DANIEL VIAÑA |

    VÍCTOR MARTÍNEZ |

    CÉSAR URRUTIA

    Madrid

Thursday, 24 December 2020 - 18:46

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The rise in prices with the New Year has become almost as traditional as taking the twelve grapes with the chimes.

Taxes take a large part of the increases this year, but it will not be the only thing that affects the pocket of Spaniards in 2021: fuel, insurance, bank commissions ... Below we review some of the changes that will take effect in the next weeks.

More taxation

The tax increase is one of the aspects in which the most changes n

Citizenship will be achieved in 2021. And that increase will not be, far from it, only for high income and companies, as the Government always tries to defend.

For example, the Executive has included in the General State Budgets (PGE) a tightening of VAT on sugary drinks, which will go from 10% to 21%, as well as a figure on single-use plastics.

The Minister of Finance,

Maria Jesus Montero

, has justified these actions as necessary to improve eating habits and the preservation of the environment, something that is also influenced and recommended by numerous international organizations.

But without a doubt, they are also taxes that will affect the middle class.

Diesel levy

The same was going to happen with the increase in the tax on diesel until the PNV, with its usual ability to veto measures that it fears will penalize it electorally in the Basque Country, stopped a tightening that Montero had considered until that moment essential to leave a cleaner planet to the next generations.

Insurance premiums

The increase in the Tax on Insurance Premiums (IPS) was something unexpected even for the sector itself, as recognized in this newspaper by the president of the employer Unespa (Spanish Union of Insurance and Reinsurance Entities), Pilar González de Frutos.

The Budgets for 2021 include a rise from 6% to 8% in said tax, which will translate into an additional cost for Spanish families of between 28 and 30 euros per year The impact of this measure has been valued by the Government at about 455 million euros, that is, an increase of almost 25% in the usual collection of this tribute.

Pensions

Pensions will rise 0.9% in 2021 for the fourth consecutive year.

However, the Social Security system in full review in order to establish an alternative mechanism to the Pension Revaluation Index (IRP), the Government has applied this increase to contributory pensions, as is the case of retirement pensions, permanent disability or death.

Non-contributory retirement or disability benefits will double, 1.8%, while the IPREM (indicator used to calculate different aid and benefits) will have an increase of 5%, to 564.73 euros.

Energy

2021 will be the year of the big change in the prices of the energy sector.

The Government's proposal to extract fixed costs from the electricity tariff and distribute them among other fuels will have as a first consequence a

rising fuel or gas prices

, which will have to bear from now on part of the

€ 7 billion

destined to finance the wave of investment in renewables of the first decade of the century.

The goal of the Vice President of Ecological Transition, Teresa Ribera, is for these changes to take effect in the second part of the year.

While waiting for this rate revolution to be approved by the Council of Ministers and endorsed by the Cortes, the Government has chosen to freeze the fixed part of the receipt.

This supposes

around 40% of the household bill

.

Banking

Banking services will continue to become more expensive in 2021. Although interest rates will remain at very low levels due to the ECB's stimulus policies -which will make loans cheaper-, banks will not renounce their policy of

increase commissions

gradually to try to mitigate the impact that Covid has left on its income statement.

The sector will continue to tighten links

and it will require its clients to contract new products -investment funds, pensions ...- to avoid the cost of maintaining current accounts.

In addition, the new mergers will reduce the number of banks and, therefore, the customer's options to transfer their savings in an attempt to avoid this price increase.

Pension plans

Another of the changes that surprised and caused unease in Unespa and the rest of the financial sector has to do with individual pension plans.

The Executive has modified the limits of maximum contributions to these plans and has lowered the level of contribution that can be deducted in personal income tax from 8,000 to 2,000 euros.In addition, the legislative proposal prepared by Moncloa raises the tax from 8,000 euros to 10,000 euros. limit for employment systems.

The Executive expects to save 580 million euros in 2022 with this change which, according to Unespa and Inverco calculations, will have repercussions for some 8.5 million people.

In other words, it will also have a direct impact on average income and small savers.

The Executive, relying on an AIReF report, maintains that it is regressive, although what that text also says is that the plans must be reviewed in depth and not be limited to reducing the maximum tax deduction ceiling.

Tobin tax

The Tax on Financial Transactions (ITF) or

Tobin tax

It will come into effect on January 16.

This is a tax that investors who buy shares of certain companies will bear, who will have to pay 0.2% of the transaction carried out.Not all transactions are affected by this new rate, since it is limited to those Spanish securities whose market capitalization as of December 1 of the year prior to the acquisition exceeds 1 billion euros. Practically all the Ibex 35 companies would be affected at this time.

The Government plans to collect 850 million euros per year and among experts and market analysts there is a general consensus that the most affected will be minority shareholders and individuals who want to bet on this type of securities.

IRPF rise

To all this must be added the increase in personal income tax for incomes over 300,000 euros, which, in this case, does meet the Government's "that those who have the most pay more" but which in reality will have little effect in terms of collection, and the limitation to 95% of the exemption of dividends and capital gains in Corporation tax.

Registrations

Spain will be the only one of the big five car markets in Europe that will not modify the registration tax so that there is no increase in the tax as of January 1 with the entry into force of the new cycle of homologation of consumption and emissions WLTP. Therefore, all those people who acquire a new car from that date will have to assume the increase in this tax.

As explained by the OCU (Organization of Consumers and Users), in 2018 the way of measuring the approved fuel consumption of cars was changed, going from the NEDC cycle to the WLTP, which is more demanding.

Due to this stricter method, the approved consumption of the vast majority of cars increased.

In Spain, it was decided not to start applying the consumption and emissions of the WLTP cycle to calculate the registration tax until January 1, 2021. From that date, the new emissions data will be used and that will make some models have to incorporate a higher tax.

For example, him

Seat Leon TSI 110 CV

It will go from being exempt to the section that pays 4.75% and will cost 817 euros more in its cheapest version.

Or the

Mercedes GLC 300d 4 matic

, which would go from the 4.75% tranche to 9.75%, which would pay 2,212 euros more.

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