The Balearic government, as reported last week, has ruled out introducing a tax on hire cars. It said that a tax wouldn't have any effect in reducing the number of cars (the government has been expressing concerns about how many there are), and it now also says that at present the tax has not been "technically thought through".
However, some members of Més want such a tax and believe that it can be introduced via a modification to the tourism law. The government, though, is also aware of the fuss that was created when the Partido Popular administration of José Ramón Bauzá contemplated such a tax. The PP had intended bringing in three main types of "green tax", and this was one of them. In the end, none of them were pursued. In the case of a tax on large retail centres, the government faced a potentially fierce battle in the courts. It backed down.
Any tax on hire cars would be payable by the user, but the government would have a problem because it doesn't have a complete register of all the cars, many of which are shipped on to the islands by multinational companies.
If it were able to apply a hire-car tax, the government might not be going to increase the tourist tax next year (in some form or another). The level of government spending will rise in 2018, and so some additional revenue from specific taxes will be needed.
7 comments
To be able to write a comment, you have to be registered and logged in
Ged, that's a bit of a simplistic comment isn't it ?
For the first time in 26years of hiring a car at the airport for the duration of my stay ( usually 2x 14night holidays ) I will not be hiring a car after July's fiasco! I've booked for three weeks next July -No car hire and I think I will be going elsewhere in October 2018 and Summer 2019!
Too many people coming to the island. We can't cope. They're putting a strain on our services. Locals can't get the housing they need because foreigners are taking up all the available accomodation forcing up prices and rent. Our streets are too crowded. We have to stop people coming to the island. I'm not talking about Mallorca. I'm talking about the UK. That's the kind of rhetoric the Brexiteers used to get the UK voters out of Europe. Personally I voted to stay in Europe. But if the Mallorcan people start to believe that the island can do better without the tourists, they may find themselves being taken for a ride by idealistic but flawed propositions.
I thought that there already was a hire car tax. Isn't it called IVA?
Good idea lets have another tax then we can use it to pay the unemployed as there will no tourist left so there will no jobs, between everyone on this left wing government it's like they want to destroy the islands economy or are they just stupid or both !!
Tax, tax, tax, tax, tax, not welcome, go home, don't comeDo the government have a death wish on their economy.Won't be coming again after this year's visit
Tax these Hire Cars as they are 'Shipped In '. In the areas around the Airport, there are fields of hire cars. Tax collectors could search these fields , and apply tax certification. Especially during the Winter. A method of recording and marking Hire Cars , as tax paid would eventually catch them all. Stopping Diesel Hire Vehicles polluting the Island, should incur much higher taxation.