Sustainable Tourism Law

THE TAXATION OF SUSTAINABLE TOURISM IN SPAIN 351 The Catalan Tax was established in 2012. In 2016, the Tax on tourist stays in the Balearic Islands was resumed. There has already been another experience in this Community, which was short-lived due to the pressures of the sector, implemented by the Balearic Law 7/2001 39 . Specifically, art. 23 of the Law that regulates the Catalan tax (Law 5/2017) invokes a “unique economic capacity” revealed by the individuals who spend a stay (regardless of whether they stay overnight or not) in establishments and facilities located in the art. 26.3 of the same, that we can circumscribe to hotels, apartments and tourist homes and cruise ships (similar regulation affects the Balearic tax) 40 . A singular economic capacity that, we believe, is relativized, especially when we talk about stays in hotels and hostels with only a few stars or in shelters, frequented by groups with little purchasing power and ability to spend, such as young people 41 . 39 The Catalan tax was introduced by Law 5/2012, B.O.E. no. 83, of April 6, 2012, although the tax is currently regulated by Law 5/2017, of March 28, of fiscal, administrative, financial and public sector measures and creation and regulation of taxes on large commercial establishments, on stays in tourist establishments, on radiotoxic elements, on packaged sugary drinks and on carbon dioxide emissions, which has improved in some areas the treatment that the former gave. For its part, the Parliament of the Autonomous Community of the Balearic Islands had previously approved the Tax on Stays in Tourism Companies and Lodging, by Law 7/2001, of April 23, which was repealed by Law 7/2003, of 22 October, and resumed by Law 2/2016, of March 30. The studies of GUERVÓS MAÍLLO, M. Á. Stand out in this regard: “Aspectos y posibilidades de la fiscalidad del turismo”, Derecho y opinión, n. 9, 2001; y PRADOS PÉREZ, E.: “Fiscalidad y turismo: el tributo turístico”, Quincena Fiscal, February, 2001, n. 4, among others. We have worked on these taxes, although without considering the changes provoked in 2017 for the Catalan case, IGLESIAS CARIDAD, M.: “Los impuestos sobre estancias turísticas, catalán y balear, a la luz del derecho constitucional español y del derecho europeo”, Revista técnica tributaria , n. 115, 2016, p. 31-60. 40 States the art. 26.3 of the Catalan Law: “3. Están sujetos al impuesto las estancias en los siguientes establecimientos y equipamientos turísticos: a) Los alojamientos turísticos establecidos en cada momento por la normativa vigente en materia de turismo. b) Los albergues de juventud, cuando presten servicios turísticos de alojamiento. c) Las embarcaciones de crucero turístico. d) Cualquier establecimiento o equipamiento en el que se presten servicios turísticos de alojamiento”. The resumed Balearic tax carefully works the taxable event, and thus, the taxable event is the stay, with or without overnight stay, of a long list of establishments, such as hotel accommodation establishments (hotels, city hotels, apartments and hotels). tourist accommodation inland), tourist apartments, various kinds of rural tourism accommodation (rural hotels and agrotourism), hostels and shelters, hostels or tourist cruise boats. It includes in the taxable event the tourist holiday homes, the houses object of commercialization in tourist stays and the objects of tourist commercialization susceptible of inscription in agreement with the laws that regulate them, the establishments and houses that the Balearic norm grants the qualification of tourist, and even the houses that are object of tourist commercialization do not fulfill the requirements established for it in the autonomic norm, and thus the registration is not authorized, as it is indicated in the art. 4 of the Balearic Law 2/2016. 41 The Law that regulates the Catalan Tax regulates four exemptions that must be documented. The first is that related to stays subsidized by social programs of a public administration of any member state of the European Union, the second is persons under the age of 16, the third, causes of force majeure determined in the Regulation, and the Fourth, the stays made by any person for health reasons, as well as those of the people who accompany them. Precisely is subject and is not exempt from paying the Tax to young people who already travel with a certain autonomy with respect to their parents, over 16 years. Until the reform of the Catalan tax of 2017, only the first two exemptions existed. At present, it can be noted that the exemptions are the same for the Catalan case as for the Balearic Islands.