Spanish tax evasion task force targets Gibraltar

(Photo: elmundo.es)

MADRID / GIBRALTAR The Spanish tax authorities (Agencia Tributaria) have created a task force aimed at stopping hundreds of millions of euros from crossing the border into Gibraltar. According to Madrid, there are still some 30,000 companies registered on the Rock - one for each member of the population, they say with irony - despite the efforts made by Government to be taken off the black list of what in Spain are called 'fiscal paradises', or tax havens. One of the concerns of the Agencia Tributaria is the number of well-heeled business people living on the Costa del Sol who daily cross the frontier with cash or bankers' drafts in millions. They evade taxes not only on cash transactions but also on other off-shore earnings - some of which is considered 'black money' or illegal gains. The task force is made up of specialists from Andalucía, Ceuta and Melilla, who will be checking on cross-border transactions, as well as financial operations on the Rock. Corporation Tax in Gibraltar is 10%, for instance, while in Spain it is 30%, which makes evasion a temptation even for legitimate business people. (A more detailed article on this subject will soon be available on SpainInformer.com)

European Commission questions Gibraltar's Income Tax Act

EC HQ Brussels

Seeking to assess need for formal investigation

GIBRALTAR The European Commission received a State Aid Complaint from the Spanish Government regarding Gibraltar's 2010 Income Tax Act on July 2, something Chief Minister Fabian Picardo called an 'attack' by Spain against the Rock. Now the EC has asked questions about the law in an effort to ascertain whether formal proceedings should take place in the matter. The subject has often been broached by Spain, lately by the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooparation, José Manuel García-Margallo, whoYOU WILL SOON BE UNABLE

Adiós 'black money'

HSBC Private Bank, Geneva

SPAIN The Secretary of State for Taxes, Miguel Ferre, said recently that the volume of 'hidden resources' could be "very important", and believes that the recently announced tax amnesty will be accepted in the end by the regional authorities in spite of their previous opposition because the solution they propose does not look "judicially possible" because there is no fiscal independence as such in the country. He said also that there few if any accurate figures on the hidden money but he did refer to the previous (PSOE) government's activity in this area, which raised some €200 million from Spanish nationals through one single Swiss branch of HSBC.>>>

Gibraltar wants to close financial disclosure deal with Spain

Justice Minister Daniel Feetham

GIBRALTAR (Agencies) While Gibraltar has already signed 18 Tax Information Exchange Agreements (TIEA's) with OECD and EU member states, the Rock wants to close an agreement with Spain, Minister for Justice Daniel Feetham has said, according to local media. "The Gibraltar Government has already proposed that these same agreements be signed with Madrid as part of the negotiations of the Tripartite Forum," he declared. Feetham rejected the allegations made on occasions that Gibraltar refuses to cooperate with tax information exchange requests from Spain. He said that the problem lies in the non-recognition of Gibraltar's legal and administrative jurisdiction, which meant that Spanish requests have often been made directly to Britain. Gibraltar, therefore, is not under any legal obligation to comply with these requests as no agreement has been reached with the Spanish authorities.

Almost 400 Spaniards with Swiss bank accounts are about to escape the tax man's clutches

SPAIN (Source: Público) Exactly 366 Spanish nationals with millions in Swiss bank accounts have not responded to demands from the Agencia Tributaria (the tax authority) and have yet to put their fiscal affairs in order. The tax evasion laws which they have allegedly infringed prescribes in June. In other words, they are about to escape from prosecution. At a recent parliamentary question, the Ministry for Economy and reasury answered that 659 Spaniards had evaded taxes they should have declared through 2,700 accounts at HSBC's Swiss branch. Of these, only 293 had deigned to respond, which Hacienda (Treasury) announced had meant €260million for the nation's coffers. This was for the 2005-2009 income tax period payable in 2006-2010. However, of these 293, says Hacienda now, 151 are incomplete or, to put it beyond legalese spin, not entirely truthful.>

80% of IBEX 35 stock index companies operate through tax havens

SPAIN (GibChronicle) A recent report by the Spanish observatory on Corporate Social Responsibility (Observatorio de Responsabilidad Social Corporativa) reveals that nearly all companies listed on the Spanish stock exchange operate through offshore centres. The report highlights that more than 80% of companies that are part of the benchmark stock market index (IBEX 35) in the Madrid stock exchange (Bolsa de Madrid) operate through tax havens. The remaining companies either have shareholders that are based in or have shares in tax havens. The so called "secrecy jurisdictions" with the highest concentration of Spanish company subsidiaries are the Netherlands, Delaware, Luxembourg (photo), Cayman Islands, Switzerland, Puerto Rico and Panama.