Barcelona freezes taxes and will stop entering 60 million euros

The health emergency situation due to the coronavirus has forced the Barcelona City Council to take extreme measures. Looking ahead to next year, they will freeze all municipal taxes, except the terrace tax, which maintains the 75% reduction, although the Consistory estimates that the decision represents between 60 and 70 million less than the expected income initially for this 2020. The councilors of Commerce, Markets, Consumption, Internal Regime and Finance, Montserrat BallarÃn; and of Budgets and Presidency, Jordi MartÃ, indicated that the situation due to the health emergency causes this decrease in income, to which must be added the exemption from the public price of commercial waste collection and the drop in collection in other areas, like the green and blue parking areas.

For this reason, in the Tax Ordinance proposal for 2021, designed for the special context of the health crisis, a public road occupancy rate will be incorporated for shared-use scooters in a regime of economic exploitation, such as those already existing in the case of shared bikes and motorcycles. Martà remarked that these tributes “are imperatively adapted to the economic needs of the city” and asked “generosity” to all groups in the City Council to approve them. The intention is to do it in December.

The 2020 Tax Ordinances planned to increase municipal revenue by 66 million compared to the previous year, but the health emergency will cause it to be lower. The City Council also wants to introduce “technical changes” in 2021 with the Economic Activities Tax (IAE), the Real Estate Tax (IBI) and the Construction, Installations and Works Tax (ICIO) so that aid can be requested in “the installation of solar energy panels and thermal use”.

There is also a 95% discount on the IBI of social rental housing promoted by non-profit entities that are built on public land and the rate for sending digitized documents is eliminated, updating the rates for occupations on public roads or in the regulation of tourist bus parking.