At Wednesday's meeting of the Balearic parliament finance committee, a proposal was tabled to request the Spanish government to create a specific tax for the Balearics that would tax luxury assets that are in the name of companies when they are in reality personal assets.
Led by Joana Aina Campomar of Més, it was argued that wealthy individuals "hide" assets such as superyachts, mansions, high-performance cars and works of art in the name of companies in order not to pay taxes on them. These are assets that are not necessary for business "production" purposes.
It was acknowledged that there is at present no detailed list of how many of these assets are hidden in the Balearics behind a corporate screen, but Campomar said that this could be compiled by cross-checking tax data. In her view, the Balearic Islands are "most likely" one of the places in Spain and the Mediterranean where there are most cases of this type.
Individuals devise formulas "to camouflage assets and not pay taxes". "These are tax avoidance practices," she insisted, referring to a lack of "solidarity", itself an allusion to the Spanish government's solidarity tax on wealth.
For the opposition, the Partido Popular spokesperson, Antoni Costa, attacked the left's "tax maelstrom", while Marc Pérez-Ribas of Ciudadanos wondered if this was an initiative simply to annoy. Businesspeople would be "criminalised and that does not help prosperity".
The proposal was passed with the votes of the representatives of the left-wing parties.
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So who are the bigger crooks? Surely dodgy assets should be investigated rather than taxed which suggests implicit legality?