TAX TREATY IS A TREAT - says Spanish Govt

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 Friday, June 5, 2020 - 09:53

Gibraltar stopped consolidating itself as a tax paradise and centre for money laundering, says Spanish foreign minister

The Spanish foreign minister Arancha Gonzalez yesterday defended Spain having entered into a Tax Treaty with Britain over Gibraltar, saying it would stop Gibraltar consolidating itself as a fiscal paradise and centre for money laundering to the detriment of the Campo area. The deal also resolves conflicts over tax residency and avoids companies which carry out economic activity in Spain with a fiscal regime in Gibraltar.

This is how the Spanish government defended the tax treaty which the Vox party, with the support of the main opposition party PP, had attempted to destroy on the grounds that there was no advance in the Spanish sovereignty claim to Gibraltar. The two opposition parties wanted a deal in accordance with the UN resolutions which favoured the Spanish sovereignty position. They also spoke of there existing discrimination against Spanish workers in Gibraltar, saying that Spanish workers were treated as ‘cheap labour.’

Gonzalez also highlighted that by the end of this month the price differential of tobacco prices in Gibraltar and Spain would not be over 32%.

Supporting the treaty, the Ciudadanos party said that the Spanish government now has free access to the Registry of Companies in Gibraltar and also to the Land Registry. It also eliminated unfair competition and allowed for the interchange of information between Spain 'and the colony'. Podemos, for its part, said the treaty opposed tax fraud.

Earlier, the foreign minister said that limiting unfair tax practices by Gibraltar did not imply recognising the Rock as a juridical entity.

Further, there was no change on sovereignty or jurisdiction. It resolved ‘tax sovereignty’, she claimed.

As we reported earlier this week, Gibraltar and Spain will exchange automatically information such as 'annual information on workers who are tax residents in one jurisdiction but who are employed or carry on a trade in the other, and also ‘information on vessels, aircraft and motor vehicles registered in one jurisdiction but connected to tax residents in the other.’

05-06-2020 PANORAMAdailyGIBRALTAR