A taxing issue

“Mallorcans claim that they already pay plenty of taxes...” | VON INGO THOR¶¶Die Hochsaison s

Jason MoorePalma07/09/2021 09:37

Should local residents pay the tourist tax? At the moment a large number of Mallorcans are heading to local hotels, due to the special offers being made by many hotels because of the lack of holidaymakers, and the tourist tax is in the spotlight. Many Mallorcans are not too impressed that they have to pay an environmental surcharge to stay in a local hotel. They argue that they already pay taxes on Mallorca and that should be enough.

I suspect that the local authorities might agree but under European Union law the Balearic government can´t just make tourists pay because it would be rather unfair. So really it is a question of all or nothing or in this case nobody. It is an issue which has come to light in recent months because usually local hotels are fully booked and there is no room for local residents. But as a result of Covid, things have changed.

A growing number of hotels rely on the so-called “local business” to keep them open especially at weekends. It is one of the reasons why stay-vacations have become so popular this year. But returning to the tourist tax I still believe that it would have been sensible for the Balearic government to scrap it for this year.

Local hotels need all the help they can get and so do tourists, both local and international. I know that the tourist tax is not a lot of money but it would have been a nice public relations exercise by the local government if it had been scrapped for this year or until the industry fully recovers.