History
First Stage: 1878–1937
Second Stage: 1937–1980. The Agreement in Álava
Third Stage: 1981–2009. The Present-day Agreement
Following the death of general Franco and the start of the Democratic Transition, the demands for Autonomy Statutes were revived in Catalonia and the Basque Country, and this process spread to the rest of the State. The 1st Additional Regulation of the 1978 Constitution recognised and protected the Historical Rights of the Foral Territories. One of these historical rights was the Economic Agreement, which is why in the negotiation of the Autonomy Statute of the Basque Country the Agreement was extended once again to cover all of the Autonomous Community. Indeed, Article 41.1 of the Autonomy Statute of the Basque Country of 1979 (Organic Law 3/1979 of December 18) states: “The relations of a tax character between the State and the Basque Country will be regulated through the traditional foral system of Economic Agreement or Contracts”. Article 41.2 establishes the foundations of its content, with the definition of the Quota as the most innovative aspect: “d) The contribution of the Basque Country to the State will consist in a global Quota, made up of those corresponding to each of the Territories, as a contribution to all of the costs of the State that are not assumed by the Autonomous Community”. That is to say, the conception of the Quota changed from the traditional conception of the hypothetical income of the Treasury, to payment of State expenditure on costs not assumed by the Autonomous Community. On the basis of these principles, the negotiation of the Economic Agreement entered its definitive phase in the last months of 1980. A final agreement was reached on December 29, 1980, although for conjunctural reasons (the resignation of President Suárez, the attempted coup of February 23...) final approval had to wait until May 1981, when it was approved by a Single Article Law (Law 12/1981 of May 1Basic Characteristics of the Economic Agreement of 1981
The Economic Agreement was approved by a Single Article Law, which allowed for no amendment to its content that had been previously agreed upon between the parties; it could either be approved or not approved, but it could not be amended, following the pattern of international treaties. Thus, when mention is made of an article of the Law of the Agreement, it is understood that reference is being made to an article of the annex, and not to the Law which only has one article. The text of the Agreement of 1981 is divided into two fundamental parts: the section corresponding to taxes and the section corresponding to the Quota. This structure was derived logically from the prior existence of the Agreement with Álava. Article 1 of the text approved in 1981 established its duration, which was to be for 20 years. This 20-year period was not out of synchronisation, since it fitted in with the 25 years agreed with Álava in 1976, and thus maintained the traditional rhythm of 25-year periods established in 1925. The content of the Law was distributed in two chapters, the first dedicated to general principles and the tax section itself, and the second dedicated to the Quota (the financial part). The first chapter contains the general regulations, the distribution of powers with the State and the regulation of agreed taxes. Normative powers and the powers of exaction, management, liquidation and collection correspond to the Historical Territories, the Representative Assemblies (Juntas Generales) and the Provincial Councils respectively (article 2). Amongst the principles to be respected by the Basque tax system are found: solidarity, respect for the tax structure of the State, internal and external coordination with the State, tax harmonisation, respect for International Agreements and Treaties, and the interpretative criteria of the General Tax Law (articles 3 to 6). The State reserves to itself Customs Duties, Tax Monopolies and the tax on alcohols, as well as issues relating to the income of non-residents and the tax system of businesses whose activities extend beyond the Basque territory or which are subjected to different tax legislation (article 6). The agreed taxes subjected to autonomous regulations, whose exaction corresponds to the Foral Treasuries, cover the main direct taxes and some indirect ones: Personal Income Tax (IRPF), the Extraordinary Wealth Tax, Corporation Tax (with autonomous regulations for companies operating exclusively in the Basque Country; State regulations are applied to those also operating outside the Basque Country, without detriment to the payment of taxes in the Basque Country due to the so-called “relative volume of business”), and the Inheritance and Gift Tax. Amongst the indirect taxes agreement was reached on the Capital Transfer Tax, Stamp Duty, the Tax on Company Traffic (Impuesto de Tráfico de Empresas) and the Luxury Tax, Special taxes (telephones and refreshments) and taxes on gaming. Finally, the following were also recognised as taxes falling under autonomous regulation, in collaboration with the municipal treasuries: Rural and Urban Territorial Contribution, as well as the Tax Licence for Professional and Industrial Activities. Chapter II deals with the regulation of the Quota. The principal difference between the Quota of 1878 and that of 1981 is that in the first case it was understood that the Quota was to be the equivalent of what the Treasury Ministry would have collected if it had applied the common system. However, from 1981 onwards, it is the payment corresponding to the expenditure that the central government continues making in the Basque Autonomous Community, whether directly for services situated here, or for others that benefit its inhabitants (for example the diplomatic service or the army), together with the contribution of the Autonomous Community to the Inter-territorial Compensation Fund. The part to be paid by the Autonomous Community is basically established according to its proportional weight within the national income. To reach this figure a more general formula is employed that simplifies its calculation. The starting point is a basis that takes account of: State expenditure in Spain on untransferred powers; what the State collects due to income not included in the agreement; and, in order to avoid the quota representing an extra burden over and above the generation of effective resources of the State, the deficit. A proportion of this expenditure and income had to be assigned to the Basque Country. Through an approximate calculation, which takes account of the weight of the income and population within the Spanish total, it was stipulated that the proportion was 6.24%. The Quota has a five-yearly periodicity, although there is an annual adjustment of the quantity on the basis of the figures budgeted for and liquidated by the State. This is an essential difference from the design of the Quota up until that time, inasmuch as it involves the unilateral risk represented for the Basque Country of assuming a part of the expenditure on powers that have not been transferred and that depend exclusively on the State, independent of how the conjuncture of the country evolves or whether the tax collection increases or not. Besides these agreements, it was also decided to set up Peer Commissions: one of these concerned the Quota and was responsible for an annual review of the Quota and a five-yearly review of the index of imputation (which has not altered since 1981); an Arbitration Board; and a Coordinating Commission (neither of which have ever met). The evolution of the agreed Quotas has followed a logical course insofar as agreed taxes have increased and untransferred costs have fallen. In fact, in 1996 the Quota fell to minimum levels and it was necessary to introduce a reform in the Economic Agreement to agree on new taxes (mineral oils, alcoholic drinks) in order to increase it. As can be seen, the system of the Agreement has undergone certain changes in its content which, in general, have broadened it. However, due to this greater breadth, it has also encountered problems inherent in the development of the European framework, something that was unforeseeable to those who initially negotiated it. For this reason, the concrete application of the system by the Provincial Councils has recently been the subject of judicial arguments and lawsuits. The changes in the Agreement of 1981 have been made insofar as reform became necessary to adapt it to new situations. By the Law of December 27, 1985, it had to be adapted to the introduction of VAT as a result of Spain's entry into the EEC. Then, through the Laws of June 2, 1990, December 27, 1990, and December 28, 1988, the initial law was adjusted to meet the rules regulating Local Treasuries, Municipal Taxes and Public Service Costs (precios públicos), resulting in the Updated Text of the Agreement of January 1, 1991. Other reforms took place: in 1993 in order to adapt the Agreement to the changes in VAT and Excise Duty; in 1997 concerning the methodology for determining the Quota for the 1997–2001 five-year period; and the final adaptation of August 4, 1997 incorporated other taxes on Mineral Oils and Tobacco (previously subjected to Tax Monopolies and thus not covered by the agreement) and the Personal Income Tax on non-resident citizens, and increased the normative autonomy in the case of direct taxes (IRPF and Corporations). The Provincial Councils collect the greater part of the taxes, leaving aside municipal taxes, and have to finance the Basque Government. Their internal relations are regulated by the Law of Historical Territories (Ley de Territorios Históricos) (Law 27/1983 of November 25, concerning relations amongst the common institutions of the Autonomous Community and the Foral Organisations of its Historical Territories). In essence, this imitates the model of the Quota with the State since article 16 mentions that “the Historical Territories will contribute to the maintenance of all the general costs of the Basque Country that they have not assumed, to which end the Provincial Councils will make their contributions to the General Treasury of the Basque Country”. Article 20 establishes that the income derived from the management of the Economic Agreement, once the quota has been discounted, will be distributed amongst the General Treasury of the Basque Country and the Foral Treasuries, with the size of the contributions that the latter pay to the former set by the Basque Finances Council, formed by six members (three from the Basque Government and one from each Provincial Council). Different Laws of Contribution have resulted from these meetings, the most recent of which is Law 2/2007; official Bulletin of the Basque Country (BOPV) no. 70, of April12th and BOPV no. 80, of April 26.The Renewal of the Economic Agreement of 2002 and the Reform of 2007
Following a complex negotiating process, which began in the summer of 2001, and after a unilateral extension by the State by the Law of December 27, 2001, given that there was no agreement in the Mixed Commission on the Quota at the appropriate time, an agreement was reached in this Commission on March 6, 2002, that took concrete form in Law 12/2002 of May 23. This Law, which also consists of a single article, introduced relevant innovations with respect to earlier texts. In the exposition of reasons for enacting the new law, emphasis was placed on the Agreement's character as historical law, with a widening of foral normative authority, and on the need to regulate the financial flows between the State and theModification of the Economic Agreement and new Five-Year Quota Law of 2017
In the spring of 2017, due to the parliamentary minority of the Popular Party, parliamentary support for the General State Budget for that year was agreed with, among other parties, the Basque Nationalist Party. Among other agreements, there were several reforms in the Economic Agreement and, above all, the approval of a new Quota Law, since ten years had passed since 2007 and another one should have been approved for the five-year period 2012–2017. Thus, after the corresponding parliamentary procedure, the Economic Agreement was modified by Law 10/2017, of December 28. Since the modification carried out in 2014, other novelties had been introduced in the tax system which made it necessary to adapt the Agreement, as required by its second additional provision. Therefore, in the first place, the Agreement has been adapted to several legislative changes that have taken place in the State legislation and that were pending its incorporation to the Agreement. It has been agreed to update, among others, the precepts relating to tax groups, the Electricity Tax, the option for non-residents to pay personal income tax, as well as the adaptation of the regulation of the tax crime in accordance with the new regime established in the Penal Code. Likewise, it has been approved the arrangement of the Tax on the value of the extraction of gas, oil and condensates, created by Law 8/2015, of May 21, amending Law 34/1998, of October 7, of the Hydrocarbons Sector, and regulating certain tax and non-tax measures in relation to the exploration, research and exploitation of hydrocarbons. In relation to the Inheritance and Gift Tax, the Provincial Councils are assigned the responsibility of levying the tax due on acquisitions made by taxpayers resident abroad when most of the total value of the assets and rights transferred corresponds to those located in the Basque Country, as well as in the inheritance of deceased persons not resident in Spanish territory when the heir resides in the Basque Country and in donations to residents in the Basque Country of real estate located abroad. With respect to the taxation of Tax Groups, it is established that the proportion of the group's volume of operations must be taken into account for withholding tax purposes in the cases referred to in the second paragraph of letter c) of article 7.One, the second paragraph of letter a) of article 9.One and the second paragraph of article 23.Two of the Tax Agreement. On the other hand, improvements have been introduced in tax management and coordination between Administrations by establishing, among other measures, a new procedure for the regularization of VAT refunded installments corresponding to liquidation periods prior to the moment in which the taxpayer's operations began to be carried out, agreeing on the rules for the assignment and revocation of the Taxpayer Identification Number, regulating the collaboration between Administrations in relation to the actions of verification and investigation and of obtaining information in order to levy taxes and introducing new rules for the coordination of tax collection and inspection competences between Administrations in cases of regularization of transactions between related persons or entities and the classification of transactions differently from the way they have been declared by the taxpayer when this implies a modification of the taxes borne or charged in indirect taxes in which the charging mechanism has been established. Likewise, it has been agreed to modify the precepts regulating the connection points in various taxes: Personal Income Tax, Corporate Income Tax, VAT and Non-Resident Income Tax. However, the 2017 reform did not address the problem of import VAT discrimination suffered by importing companies in the Basque Country since 2015. Since that year, it has been allowed throughout Spain (except in the Basque Country and Navarre) that importers of a certain volume do not have to advance import VAT before Customs and settle it later within their ordinary VAT liquidation, which implies offsetting it directly against their output VAT. In this way, the financial problem of the advance payment of import VAT disappeared in the rest of Spain. Since 2015, an extension of this benefit to Basque importers has been demanded, by means of a negotiation between the Basque and the State Administrations, which either modifies the text of the Agreement that still establishes that the levying of VAT on imports is a State competence or reforms the mechanisms of liquidation and compensation between administrations of said VAT that allow the liquidation before the Regional Treasuries in the case of importers of a certain volume. Such opportunity was lost in the important negotiation of 2017. In 2021 the problem persists and given that in that year a new reform of the Agreement has to take place, to include the two new taxes on Digital Services and Financial Transactions, the moment should be used to eliminate this important discrimination affecting Basque importers. At the same time, a new Quota Law had to be agreed for the five-year period 2017–2021,2 in addition to liquidating the quotas from 2007 -the year of the last approved Quota Law- until 2017. Thus, the quota for the base year, 2017, was established as follows: Note: The provisional valuation of the cost associated with the public programs and actions in the field of labor, employment and vocational training transferred to the Basque Country by Royal Decree 1441/2010, of November 5 (Section G.2) is not included in this amount as an Assumed Charge.Modification of the Economic Agreement and the new Five-Year Quota Law of 2023
Once Pedro Sanchez, leader of the PSOE, came to the Government, a new parliamentary majority had to be organized since 1918. And for this, as happened with the Popular Party in 2017, the Economic Agreement was modified by incorporating new taxes and a new Five-Year Quota Law was approved. The negotiating process was relatively lengthy (although it must be taken into account that the COVID-19 crisis was in the middle). In 2022 there was a first modification of the Agreement, by means of Law 1/2022, of February 8, with the aim of adapting it, on the one hand, to the reform of the Value Added Tax carried out to transpose the Community Directives that modified this tax with the aim of modernizing and simplifying the taxation of cross-border e-commerce and, on the other hand, to incorporate to the Agreement the new tax figures created with the approval of Law 5/2020, of October 15, on the Tax on Financial Transactions (Tobin Tax) and Law 4/2020, of October 15, on the Tax on Certain Digital Services (Google Tax). However, new tax modifications made further changes necessary, already embodied in 2023. The reform texts were published on April 4, 2023, by means of the laws modifying the Economic Agreement (Law 9/2023, of April 3) and approving the methodology of the quota to be paid to the State applicable to the period 2022 to 2026 (Law 10/2023, of April 3). The first one incorporated the establishment of two new taxes (the Special Tax on Non-Reusable Plastic Containers and the Tax on the Deposit of Waste in Landfills, Incineration and Co-incineration of Waste) and adapts the connection point applicable to the Tax on Fluorinated Greenhouse Gases, following the modification of its structure operated in the State tax regulation. Also included was the new tax figure, complementary to the Wealth Tax, of the temporary Solidarity Tax of the Great Fortunes, with reference to the connection points already stablished for the latter tax. The new Quota Law (Law 10/2023, of April 3), proceeded to determine the methodology for setting the quota during the five-year period 2022–2026, as well as to establish the provisional liquid quota for the year 2022, the base year of the five-year period. Although the approved methodology is markedly similar to that contained in the previous five-year period, some novelties are introduced in relation to the adaptation of the VAT consumption adjustment methodology, that of the Special Tax on Non-Reusable Plastic Containers and that of the Tax on Fluorinated Greenhouse Gases. Thus, Annex I of this last provision published the quota for that base year, 2022. (*) This amount does not include the provisional valuation of the cost associated with the public programs and actions in the field of labor, such as employment and vocational training transferred to the Basque Country by Royal Decree 1441/2010, of November 5 (Section G.2).See also
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See also
Basque tax holidaysReferences
{{Reflist, 3 Economy of the Basque Country (autonomous community) Basque politics