Tom Powell
CAFES and bars across the Costa del Sol are fighting a tax on awnings and windbreaks.
The tax, which has received initial approval from the Partido Popular, will cost businesses €154 a year for each awning.
The Torremolinos Development Association has filed a host of complaints with the town hall, claiming the tax is unfair, excessive and illegal.
The group claims some popular establishments could face annual bills in excess of €1,000.
The tax will not be limited to newly installed awnings but levied on all existing ones.
Businesses, however, have already paid a tax to the town hall to install the awnings.
This double taxation and lack of justification for the tax have led the group to claim it is illegal.
Not many computerised tills in these places anyway so no records of cash taken. I doubt if many pay their full taxes. Maybe they should start with tax investigations first as that would bring in much more money. Start with the suppliers and their suppliers and work your way through, impose large fines and watch the money come in.
Reap.
people will just leave if they do as you say.
Hilarious. Spain at its best. But the Brits had a better idea four hundred years ago, in the form of the window tax.
The Desperate for Cash PP and Town Halls should impose a Tax for Use of Air… just because a restaurant PAID tax for use of land space, they never got right to breath the air there!
Tax them, close down the restaurant if non-paid and lose tax income + SS from restaurant and lost employees. Serves them right! Have any politicians gotten prior BUSINESS experience?
It’s just what struggling bars and cafes need. Who thinks up these daft things?
Big, the problem in Spain is too many people are on the black market and if all taxes were paid Spain could lower self employment monthly fees, the high rates of tax that they charge for ‘PAYE’ and the Country could start to thrive. Even solicitors take cash payments.
Do what they do in Taiwan. Everyone asks for a receipt for everything they buy because each one is a free lottery ticket, works wonders.
Tax probably isn’t paid on cash takings but most likely on m2, table area. Much more practical!
It will take years to change the Spanish view of a cash society, its is almost a national sport to avoid paying taxes.