The amount of assets declared by high-net-worth Balearic taxpayers increased in the final year of recession (2013). The tax agency says that in that year 6,895 taxpayers declared total assets to the value of 18,753 million euros, which represented an increase of 1,700 million over 2013 as well as of the number of declarations.
The Wealth Tax in the Balearics applies to residents with assets worth more than one million euros, of which there is an exemption up to 700,000 euros plus a 300,000 euro allowance on a property that is the normal place of residence.
It is a tax that has been ceded to the regions, and in 2013 it brought in 42 million euros more for the Balearic government, an amount attributed to a recovery in the economy. This said, it was below the 60 million that had been collected before the economic crisis.
Comparisons on account of recession can, though, be misleading. A drop in declared wealth in 2011 wasn’t in fact linked to recession. In that year the government established a bonus of 100% via a decree on urgent tax measures. This bonus was then scrapped the following year. Also, between 2008 and 2010 the Zapatero national government in effect eliminated the tax, and so it wasn’t paid.