Sustainable Tourism Law

348 SUSTAINABLE TOURISM LAW related, are taxed at reduced tax rates, which is a possibility offered by the VAT Directive, but not an obligation for the States, which could perfectly tax them with the general type; for the case of the countries of the Iberian Peninsula, in our country, Spain, of 21%, and in Portugal, of 23% 26 . The art. 98 of Directive 2006/112 / EC allows States to approve one or two reduced tax rates within the list in Annex III. This list incorporates some benefits, usually linked to tourism, such as transporting people and their luggage, access to shows, circuses, fairs, amusement parks, concerts, museums, zoos, cinemas, exhibitions “and other similar demonstrations and venues of a cultural nature”, accommodation in hotels or similar, such as campsites or caravan parking spaces. In Spain, the transport services for passengers and their baggage (land transport or between ports and airports located within the spatial scope of the tax, since if the origin or destination is outside such space, the service is exempted 27 ), the hotel services 28 , camping and spa, hostelry where food and beverages are supplied to consume on the spot -even upon request–, are subject to a reduced rate of 10%. Admission to libraries, archives and documentation centres and museums, art galleries and galleries, theatres, circuses, bullfights, concerts 29 , and other live cultural events is also included, since the modification made by Law no. 3/2017, of June 27 of the General State Budgets for 2017, to “promote the access and dissemination of culture”– according to that Law –, means they are subject to 26 He remembers, CUBILES SÁNCHEZ-POBRE, P.: ¿Afectan las últimas modificaciones relativas…, op. cit., p.248, perhaps because there are sectors that consider that there is an obligation of the Member States to apply reduced rates, which is not true from the point of view of European law. 27 We say this because art. 22 Thirteen LIVA states the exemption of “the transport of passengers and their baggage by sea or air from or to a port or airport located outside the spatial scope of the tax”. Thus, traveling, for example, between the Peninsula and the Balearic Islands to the Canary Islands, Ceuta and Melilla, is exempt from VAT. 28 Except for the provisions of the previous paragraph, the mixed services of hotels, shows, discotheques, party rooms, barbecues or other similar exampes. This exception did not exist before the 2012 reform (R.D.-Law 20/2012). Tribute to the general rate “the accessory services provided by the hotels and billed independently, such as sauna, telephone, garage, laundry, sun beds or security boxes” (LASARTE, J.; ESEVERRI, E; ADAME, F.; MARTÍN, J.: Turismo y financiación autonómica y local. Comentarios sobre la llamada “ecotasa” y otras alternativas de financiación, Comares, Granada, 2001, p. 112). As we indicated, if they are mixed services of hotels, shows, nightclubs, party halls, barbecues or similar, they are taxed at the general rate of 21% in Spain (it is clarified in Article 91. 2, 2, II, LIVA). However, a good part of the doctrine has clearly positioned itself against this treatment, as is the case with ÁLAMO CERRILLO, R.: La importancia del sector turístico… , op. cit., p. 7-38. 29 Before the reform of the VAT caused by the RD Law 20/2012, the bullfighting spectacles enjoyed the reduced rate, at that time of 8%, except the bullfights that were subject to the general rate. We understand that the reform caused by the LPGE of 2017 homogenizes the treatment, and thus all bullfighting shows are taxed at a reduced rate of 10%.