The Society of Barcelona for Studies in Economic and Social Affairs (SBEES) of Foment del Treball holds that in Spain there is an excess of complexity and conflict in the tax system "very superior" to the European average and estimates that aligning with EU standards would generate an economic impact of 21,890 million euros, derived from lower costs and induced investment.
These conclusions form part of the report 'Tax complexity and competitiveness in Spain', presented this Thursday in Madrid by the president of the Society of Barcelona for Social and Economic Studies of Foment del Treball (SBEES), Josep Sánchez Llibre, the director of the SBEES, Félix Riera, and the former minister, lawyer and author of the study, Juan Costa Climent.
Sánchez Llibre has detailed that Spain ranks 24th out of the 27 member states of the European Union in terms of tax complexity and conflictivity, only ahead of Lithuania, Slovenia and Poland. "We are at the tail end in complexity and competitiveness," he warned to the media.
The document underlines that this level of complexity and conflict implies "very excessive" costs for Spanish companies compared with their counterparts in the EU, which, as Sánchez Llibre has emphasized, translates into a loss of competitiveness.
The former minister, lawyer and author of the report, Juan Costa Climent, has pointed out that regulatory complexity has intensified in recent years and that this has especially increased the burden for SMEs. "For SMEs, conflictivity represents a very high percentage of their costs," he stressed.
The study builds several alternative scenarios in which Spain manages to reduce this excess of conflictivity and complexity, which would generate significant cost savings and a strengthening of investment, with special impact in the field of business innovation.
According to its calculations, convergence towards the EU average levels would make it possible to achieve an impact of 21,890 million euros, resulting from savings in costs and from the amounts of induced investment, equivalent to 1.3% of Spanish GDP.
"When we say convergence, what we are proposing in this report is the efficiency of the tax procedures that are applied in other European countries, such as France, the Netherlands or Denmark," explained the director of the SBEES, Félix Riera.
Within that overall figure, Juan Costa Climent has specified that 11.500 billion would come from savings through cost reduction, while 10.440 billion would correspond to potentially induced investment, which would increase by 5% if Spain manages to come close to the Community average.
In a more ambitious scenario, the report considers that, if Spain were to become a "champion" of the European Union in reducing the complexity and tax-related conflict, the combined effect of cost savings and potentially future investment would amount to 34.630 billion euros, 2.05% of GDP.
A major agreement for legal certainty and tax simplification
Given this diagnosis, Sánchez Llibre has called for "a major pact for tax certainty and the reduction of tax complexity" and has announced that he will send the report this same Thursday to all political groups, with the intention that it can be put in motion after the general elections of 29 November.
"What we want is for this to be able to be put into operation in the next legislature, whoever wins the elections," the president of Foment del Treball has said.
In the context of this pact, Juan Costa Climent has defended the need to review the sources of complexity, with simpler rules and tailored obligations. He has also suggested giving greater predictability to tax policy through a multi-year roadmap for companies. The study also proposes strengthening institutional guarantees and establishing systems for measuring and evaluating results.