The technicians of the Ministry of Finance, grouped in the Gestha organization, calculate that almost two thirds of the housing rentals located in the Canary Islands escape the control of the tax authorities. Specifically, they point out that in the Islands there are around 63,300 undeclared rentals, which represents 64.51 percent of the total real estate stock of the Archipelago. In total, according to the study, some 148 million euros of submerged income would be added.
The data is collected in the report on submerged rentals in Spain carried out by this group on the occasion of its IX National Congress, which is held between this Thursday and Friday in Santander. The Gestha opinion, prepared from the crossing of the latest available data from the Tax Agency and the Ministry of Housing, reveals that although the tax reform applied for the first time in 2007 allowed 2,985 submerged rentals to surface in the Canary Islands (3.33 percent of the 89,766 leases surfaced in Spain), fraud in the Canary Community has barely been reduced by almost two percentage points in the last year, going from 66.50 to 64.51 percent.
The Treasury technicians attribute this "reduced impact" of the reform to the limits established therein, according to which only those owners whose tenants - workers or self-employed - are between 18 and 35 years old and have net income greater than 7,236.60 euros, that is, slightly more than the beneficiaries of the 2005-2008 Housing Plan and the emancipation plan of the Ministry of Housing - those who receive the "basic emancipation income" - can benefit from a 100% reduction in net income. Most owners with other tenants can reduce half of their profits in the Income Tax, as in previous years, indicates Gestha.
In addition, the Ministry officials denounce that, three years after the entry into force of the Law on the Prevention of Tax Fraud, the Tax Agency has not yet approved the regulation that would allow the effective application of its "star measure", which obliged the companies supplying electricity, water and gas to provide the consumption of all homes, in order to allow the identification of properties that, being apparently unoccupied, "actually hide a submerged rental".
148 million euros
On the other hand, the technicians' study puts the submerged income derived from housing rental in the Canary Islands at more than 148 million euros, calculated taking into account the applicable reductions, that is, excluding from this calculation rentals related to garages, premises, plots, offices and other similar properties.
This amount defrauded in the Canary Archipelago represents 6.05 percent of the national total, which amounts to 2,450 million euros per year of submerged income derived from housing rental, calculated with the applicable reductions (excluding from this calculation rentals related to garages, premises, plots, offices and other similar properties).
According to the general secretary of Gestha, José María Mollinedo, "the fact that most of the rental income is not declared means that something is working very badly within the State Tax Agency; we must consider that it is not a merit of the fight against fraud that the average declared by the lessor increases, driven by the owners who benefited from the 100% reduction of the income received without paying taxes", indicates the group.
By geographical areas, the Gestha report indicates that more than two thirds of the rented homes whose leases are not declared (68 percent of the total) are concentrated in Catalonia, Andalusia, and Madrid, while the autonomous communities of La Rioja, Cantabria and Aragón are the ones with the fewest illegal leases.
Regarding the amount defrauded, the Catalan Community leads the national ranking with more than 740 million euros per year of undeclared income from housing rental, followed by the Communities of Madrid and Andalusia, with 709.7 and 404.4 million euros, respectively. In the Canary Archipelago, the estimated fraud in housing rentals is 148.6 million euros, while in the Valencian Community and in the Balearic Islands it amounts to 123.6 and 78.3 million euros each year, respectively.
Canary Islands, third in the ranking
On the other hand, according to the study, the owners of Canary properties are the third most fraudulent in Spain with 64.51% of undeclared rentals, only surpassed by Andalusia (74.29 percent) and Extremadura (69.80 percent).
On the contrary, the most exemplary fiscal behavior is located in Aragón, where only 16.27 percent of rentals escape the control of the Treasury. Likewise, the communities of La Rioja and Castilla y León present a less lax fiscal awareness than the rest of Spain, with figures of undeclared flats of 16.71 percent and 36.31 percent respectively.
ACN Press
