The tourism, retail and hospitality sectors in the Balearics have made a joint appeal for there to be an immediate suspension of the payment of taxes.
This call is being made by the CAEB Confederation of Balearic Business Associations, the Pimem small to medium-sized businesses association, the Association of Hotel Chains, the Association of Small Hotels, the Majorca Hoteliers Federation, the Habtur holiday rentals association, the FETV federation for tourist rentals, the restaurants associations that are part of both CAEB and Pimem, and the associations for smaller retailers, Afedeco and Pimeco.
They want the suspension to apply to all businesses which have had to close because of the state of emergency or have had to significantly reduce their activity and are therefore suffering from greatly reduced turnover.
Specifically, the business groups are seeking a three-month suspension of the filing of tax declarations and self-assessments, especially for IVA (VAT), income tax and social security contributions that relate to the first quarter of the year, with the exception of those where there are entitlements to refunds, as is often the case with, for instance, hotels and clothing retailers.
In addition, they want a three-month suspension of local taxes, especially town hall taxes for waste and occupancy of the public way (e.g. terrace taxes) as well as rates. There is also an appeal for the tourist tax to be suspended this year. Payments which are suspended would, where appropriate, be made over the six months after the three-month period has come to an end.
The associations say that these measures would allow the generation of more than 100 million euros of immediate liquidity per month in the tourism, retail and hospitality sectors. This liquidity would help companies to cope with paying staff and suppliers.