Sustainable Tourism Law

342 SUSTAINABLE TOURISM LAW apply in a special way to tourist activities that are usually easy to collect tributes from, where the tourist industry has great prominence in their management, which has as a counterpart the increase of its formal tributary duties in tandem with the administrative discharge of the Tax Administration from the income. They are usually self-liquidating tributes 9 . But there are also those who warn that tourism should not suffer disproportionate tax burdens, where the exclusive purpose is providing an easy source for resources 10 . Tourism and sustainability go hand in hand, and here’s how taxation has also been concerned about sectors or economic activities that are not exclusively tourist services but where it has a great presence. The environmental objectives and environmental sustainability have been fully taxed, in international and in Spanish regimes. It can be seen in this case, especially in the hands of the Autonomous Communities, which generates a certain fiscal competition between regions and territories. They have created a whole system of environmental taxation or for environmental purposes, generating advantageous tax revenues, so necessary for the autonomous haciendas that in this financial juncture are the ones that have had the most problems during the economic crisis. Autonomous taxes for extra-fiscal purposes, for environmental, ecological or ecotourism purposes respond to principles such as “those who pollute pay”, or “whoever pollutes the most pays”, which can be translated into what our study is interested in, like for example “whoever consumes tourism resources must pay for them” or “whoever consumes most tourism resources, must pay for them” as a contribution to public charges. These principles have given rise to tax figures such as taxes on large commercial establishments – already mentioned – or the tax on single-use plastic bags (required in Andalusia), to give some examples. Indeed, environmental taxes are being defended by the OECD, which believes that our country, Spain, should expand them, perhaps with the prospect of increasing revenue or to overcome certain inequalities that the production system generates 11 ; although it is no less true that sometimes such figures cause more inequality than 9 The easy management of tourist taxes is mentioned at work La Fiscalidad del Turismo. Hacia un Justo Equilibrio, op. cit., p. 1. As we pointed out, the self-liquidation regime is set, for example, in taxes on tourist stays for hostels, hotels and similar. Self-assessment duty that usually falls on the company providing the hosting service, as they are usually subject to the title of taxpayer substitutes, as it happens in the two experiences that tax the lodging in Spain, the tax on Catalan and Balearic tourist stays, that we will comment later. 10 He was warned at the time by the then President of the Business Council of the World TourismOrganization, Martin BRACKENBURY, and the Director General of the WTO Business Council, José Luis ZOREDA, collected in the Prologue that both make the study La Fiscalidad del Turismo. Hacia un Justo Equilibrio, op. cit. 11 “Estudios económicos de la OCDE. España. Visión general. Marzo de 2017”, OCDE, http://www.oecd.org/ eco/surveys/Spain-2017-OECD-economic-survey-overview-spanish.pdf.