Sustainable Tourism Law

THE TAXATION OF SUSTAINABLE TOURISM IN SPAIN 355 regulation, it’s possible that the hotel company with a certain number of stars lowers their prices due to a promotion, so that people with less purchasing power are able to afford the payment of an accommodation whose price under normal conditions would be too expensive. It can happen that, by different advertising promotions, raffles or gifts, someone can access an establishment that he could not if he had to support the full price. Given this circumstance, the person will pay a tax depending on the category or stars of the establishment, but perhaps not according to their authentic economic capacity or willingness to pay, which in some way would be convenient to keep in mind. In a different place we have spoken about how taxes on tourist stays do not suppose a factual overlap in their taxes with the VAT, in the terms stipulated by art. 6 of the Organic Law on Financing of the CC.AA Common Regime. We have also considered that, with the European jurisprudential doctrine in hand, we do not consider that there is an overlap of taxes that subject accommodations with VAT as a tax levied on the business volume 46 . Thus, the Judgment of the Court of Justice of the European Communities no. 1999/119 [case Erna Perlzl and others v. Steiemärkische] fails on several questions linked to the Court of Justice of the European Communities, because the body a quo had the question of whether the levies on tourism, established by several Federated States of Austria, altered the provisions of the Sixth VAT Directive; that is to say, if these taxes tax the volume of businesses, therefore they would be contrary to the community law. This infraction is ruled out by such Judgment. In spite of all this, not noticing unconstitutionality and infringement of community law for taxes on tourist stays does not prevent us from saying that it is convenient to have an attitude of legislative prudence with this type of tax. IV. AUTONOMOUS TAXES IN SPAIN FOR ENVIRONMENTAL AND ECOTOURISTIC PURPOSES As already indicated, taxation may pursue different purposes, although complementary to its collection; purposes that, in practice, are closely linked to environmental, tourism, and tourism sustainability purposes, which is what interests us. To speak of extrafiscal elements in a good part of the cases is to speak of the environmental aims, which can be observed, on the one hand, in the fiscal 46 IGLESIAS CARIDAD, M.: Los impuestos sobre estancias… , op. cit., p. 31-60.