# Spain says to charge tax of 0.03 percent on bank deposits



## skip o (Aug 1, 2011)

http://mobile.reuters.com/article/idUSL6N0PF2SF20140704?irpc=932


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## snikpoh (Nov 19, 2007)

... even more reason to use cash and not to use banks. 


Time to cut the legs off the bed to make way for more money under the mattress!


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## xabiaxica (Jun 23, 2009)

well it hasn't been passed yet - & might not be I suppose

but unless you have tons & tons of money though, 0.03% isn't a huge amount, is it?


3c on every 100€


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## thrax (Nov 13, 2008)

snikpoh said:


> ... even more reason to use cash and not to use banks.
> 
> 
> Time to cut the legs off the bed to make way for more money under the mattress!


Rumour has it that a new inspectorate of taxes is to be formed here in Spain; to be known as SCUM, they will levy taxes on any cash found in houses. Not expected to be widely liked, SCUM stands for Searching for Cash Under the Mattress.


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## Alcalaina (Aug 6, 2010)

xabiachica said:


> well it hasn't been passed yet - & might not be I suppose
> 
> but unless you have tons & tons of money though, 0.03% isn't a huge amount, is it?
> 
> ...


No, it's a tiny amount and I'm not going to lose any sleep over it.

They are reducing IRPF at the same time, thus slightly shifting the tax base from income to capital. The alternative would have been putting up IVA (VAT), I guess?


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## xabiaxica (Jun 23, 2009)

Alcalaina said:


> No, it's a tiny amount and I'm not going to lose any sleep over it.
> 
> They are reducing IRPF at the same time, thus slightly shifting the tax base from income to capital. The alternative would have been putting up IVA (VAT), I guess?


I think for the majority it's the least painful way of increasing tax income, in any case


I tend not to lose sleep over this kind of thing - if it happens it happens & since I live here I'll just have to deal with it


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## promethian (May 10, 2014)

That's a very low rate, almost insignificant. 

However the powers that be are boxing clever.

First introduce the idea with a miniscule rate... result no one cares.

Later (After an election) increase the rate of the Levy and the electorate grudgingly accepts the excuses for increasing it.

Very clever.


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## Maureen47 (Mar 27, 2014)

Sorry to be a bit thick , does this mean every deposit in a Spanish bank will be taxed at this rate ? How does it get paid ?


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## 90199 (Mar 21, 2010)

Bad news, I shall have to move the monies to a safer place.


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## promethian (May 10, 2014)

Hepa said:


> Bad news, I shall have to move the monies to a safer place.


I have a nice offshore account that invests in the Nigerian Princes trust fund if you want to hide it there.


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## mrypg9 (Apr 26, 2008)

Yawn...


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## 90199 (Mar 21, 2010)

xabiachica said:


> well it hasn't been passed yet - & might not be I suppose
> 
> but unless you have tons & tons of money though, 0.03% isn't a huge amount, is it?
> 
> ...


Should it be 3 cent in every 1000?


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## 90199 (Mar 21, 2010)

mrypg9 said:


> Yawn...


Tired? too much pudding for lunch?


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## Crab eater (Sep 13, 2013)

Hepa said:


> Should it be 3 cent in every 1000?


Not in my Maths Class !


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## Alcalaina (Aug 6, 2010)

Am I missing something? Won't it be the banks themselves that will pay it, rather than account holders? A sort of Robin Hood tax. Though they will doubtless find a way of passing it on to their customers.

Apparently Andalucía did it in 2011 but central government made it illegal.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-...can-t-take-more-cuts-as-bank-levy-sought.html


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## baldilocks (Mar 7, 2010)

When I went to school 0.03% was 3 centimos on €100, unless one is on some obscure island in the Canaries where everything is different from anywhere else in the world.


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## Alcalaina (Aug 6, 2010)

So did Catalonia. Curiouser and curiouser.

Catalan News Agency - Rajoy to partially compensate Catalonia for the tax on bank deposits


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## mrypg9 (Apr 26, 2008)

Hepa said:


> Tired? too much pudding for lunch?


Very tired....just woken up frpm a pleasant after- lunch nap.....couldn't get to sleep last night.

I lay awake thinking of how all these increases in tax, bank charges etc. could lead to our imminent destitution, eviction, starvation, sitting outside Mercadona with a sign saying 'Two starving dogs to feed'.

Seriously, does anyone keep large sums on deposit in Spanish banks? Or any bank


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## Lynn R (Feb 21, 2014)

If it does mean a tax of 0.03% on individuals' bank deposits (which is doubtful, there's been nothing in the mainstream Spanish papers - El Pais, El Mundo, etc. about this and if it did affect individual account holders I think they would have covered it - I'm trying to think of some expenditure I could cut out in order to be able to pay it. But I'm having trouble identifying something cheap enough.


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## mrypg9 (Apr 26, 2008)

Alcalaina said:


> So did Catalonia. Curiouser and curiouser.
> 
> Catalan News Agency - Rajoy to partially compensate Catalonia for the tax on bank deposits


So..it's a global tax on deposits, not an individual tax...how will that work?

Revenue will be passed down to,the regions..Sounds good to me, especially if it helps maintain the high standard of our health service.


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## 90199 (Mar 21, 2010)

baldilocks said:


> When I went to school 0.03% was 3 centimos on €100, unless one is on some obscure island in the Canaries where everything is different from anywhere else in the world.



You could afford to be educated, there's posh now, 

Sorry, I seem to have gone wrong somewhere, it's the altitude, thin air you know.


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## Alcalaina (Aug 6, 2010)

mrypg9 said:


> Very tired....just woken up frpm a pleasant after- lunch nap.....couldn't get to sleep last night.
> 
> I lay awake thinking of how all these increases in tax, bank charges etc. could lead to our imminent destitution, eviction, starvation, sitting outside Mercadona with a sign saying 'Two starving dogs to feed'.
> 
> Seriously, does anyone keep large sums on deposit in Spanish banks? Or any bank


I'm pretty sure it's the banks' own deposits that will be taxed, not the customers'? Otherwise it would be all over the papers.


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## mrypg9 (Apr 26, 2008)

Alcalaina said:


> I'm pretty sure it's the banks' own deposits that will be taxed, not the customers'? Otherwise it would be all over the papers.


That's how I read it...
Ah well, we can relax until some gloom merchant alerts us to the next threat to Brits in Spain..


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## mrypg9 (Apr 26, 2008)

Sandra has just informed me that according to today's Conservative Home, more than half of all British households receive more in benefits of all kinds than they pay in tax.
It also saysthat the UK is running a structural deficit of more than £100 bn a year.

I think we're better off in Spain


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## baldilocks (Mar 7, 2010)

What I thought was unclear was what they were referring to - the amounts already on deposit, any amount that one deposits from when it is enacted, or the bank's own deposits in the Bank de España


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## Lynn R (Feb 21, 2014)

I had to hunt for it, but have found the report published in El Mundo about this new tax:-




El Gobierno sube al 0,03% el impuesto a los dep?sitos bancarios | Econom?a | EL MUNDO


As we suspected, it definitely says that this tax is payable by "las entidades financieras" and not, therefore, by indidivual account holders. Spanish banks have been reporting big profits this year, I see this as being akin to the windfall taxes various British Governments have imposed in the past. It may be passed on to customers in some way, but so will the huge fines being incurred by the likes of Barclays, RBS, Lloyds TSB et al for various wrongdoing - they certainly won't come out of the fat cats' bonuses.

Isn't it a pity that these so called "experts" writing financial articles don't see fit to report things accurately, thus creating doubt and ambiguity in people's minds.


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## mrypg9 (Apr 26, 2008)

Lynn R said:


> I had to hunt for it, but have found the report published in El Mundo about this new tax:-
> 
> 
> 
> ...


It's how the facts are interpreted, though, Lynn. And that of course depends on the political stance of the interpreter...
Generally speaking, I tend to take right- wing libertarians like Schiff and Marxists like Navarro equally with a pinch of salt. I find Will Hutton and Larry Elliot fairly reliable and for theoretic exposition, new ' star' Thomas Piketty.
Then there are immigrants here who are prone to Schadenfreude...


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## Horlics (Sep 27, 2011)

mrypg9 said:


> Yawn...


Exactly. This is like the last tax scare people on here got worked-up about. My abogado laughed at that one. I won't be mentioning this one.


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## Swerve (Jun 29, 2011)

Hepa said:


> Bad news, I shall have to move the monies to a safer place.


Make sure you don't forget where you've hidden it.


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## Alcalaina (Aug 6, 2010)

mrypg9 said:


> Sandra has just informed me that according to today's Conservative Home, more than half of all British households receive more in benefits of all kinds than they pay in tax.


What percentage of those are pensioners?


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## Horlics (Sep 27, 2011)

It's easy to focus on all the negatives about Spain given its troubles, but yes, pondering the UK's position can be equally depressing.





mrypg9 said:


> It also saysthat the UK is running a structural deficit of more than £100 bn a year.
> 
> I think we're better off in Spain


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## mrypg9 (Apr 26, 2008)

Alcalaina said:


> What percentage of those are pensioners?


Benefits of all kinds includes not only pensioners but also the working poor whose tax credits make up 60% of total welfare expenditure.
So those two groups would account for most of the expenditure.


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