In its decision of 26 May, the Supreme Court ratified the criterion upheld by the Economic Agreement Arbitration Board in its Ruling of 2 July 2014, of considering that the characteristic purpose of the operations of the distributors in the electricity sector, i.e. the one that provides it with content and identifies and distinguishes it, is the transmission of electricity from the transport network to the consumption points, that is, it moves the electricity from one place to another, ensuring a quality supply, which genuinely constitutes a transport activity. The immediate consequence is that the applicable connection point is that of the tax domicile of the distributor.
On the other hand, rulings continue to be issued regarding the recovery of the state aids granted in the form of tax holidays and the tax credit for major investments. Those rulings confirm the overturning of the enforcement measures ordered and the retroactive nature of the proceedings for the purposes of granting the interested parties the due hearing.

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Papeles de Economía Española, published by the Savings Bank Foundation (FUNCAS), has dedicated its latest issue to the reform of autonomic financing (analysis and proposals). It includes an article by the senior professor of the UPV, Ignacio Zubiri Oria, where he delves further into the advantages that the Economic Agreement system has offered throughout the economic crisis.

In May’s Forum Fiscal, Iñaki Alonso Arce discusses the evolution of the doctrine of the Administrative Litigation Division of the High Court of Justice, regarding the interpretation of the sphere of application of Act 1/2010 to “shield ” the provincial legislation, and the competence of the provincial tax offices to break away from the general tax legislation established in the General Tax Act and its basic nature. José Luis Etxeberria Monasterio considers the figure of the Provincial Chairman, Jose Luis Bilbao Eguren, and describes his participation at key moments of the recent history of the Economic Agreement, such as the preliminary ruling on the territorial selectivity of the Provincial Legislation and the initiatives aimed at their shielding. Finally, the magazine includes an interview with the recently appointed Chair of the Arbitration Board of the Economic Agreement, Gabriel Casado Ollero.

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Issue 21 of Nationalism and Ethnic Politics, for the first quarter of 2015, is dedicated to delving further into the dynamics of the
nationalist movement in Catalonia and the Basque Country. It includes an article by Caroline Gray, from Liverpool University, entitled “A Fiscal Path to Sovereignty? The Basque Economic Agreement and Nationalist Politics”, which analyses those dynamics from the perspective of the different understanding that the governments of the Basque Country and the Spanish State have.

Link to the article

Following the retirement of Carlos Palau Taboada and the appointment of the new Chairman, Gabriel Casado Ollero, the Board of Arbitration of the Economic Agreement has resumed its activity by issuing rulings on different points, including the application of the rules successively envisaged to determine the domicile of individuals (Ruling 201502) and the confirmation of previous criteria regarding the domicile of corporate entities (Ruling No. 2014/04 and Ruling No. 2014/05).
Other points covered include declaring non-admissible, on the one hand, a dispute regarding a matter submitted to judicial pendency at the time of its being brought (Ruling No. 2014/12) and, on the other hand, the one brought with the aim of forcing the competent authority to check the trading volume of an entity, with the ensuring paradox that the very filing had prevented the check being carried out given the inherent suspensive effect of the arbitration procedure (Ruling 2014/05). Finally, the Arbitration Board denied the leave to intervene of the bankruptcy administrators of a company to be a party in the proceedings, where only the administrations in dispute may be interested parties, without prejudice to any person that accredits a legitimate interest being entitled to take part as a mere interested third party (Ruling No. 2014/01).

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In the last month of 2104 and the first of 2015, the Administrative Division of the High Court of Justice of the Basque Country issued over twenty rulings regarding the regularity of how the earnings from economic activities are determined in the framework of a management system that is different from the limited checking procedure. Even though the Court believes the latter is applicable, in keeping with the provisions of the General Tax Act that reserves this type of measures to within that procedure, the fundamental nature of those precepts, however, are not noted and, after reminding us of the jurisprudence on the disabling relevance of the formal defects in the implementation of the procedure, it concludes that the omission of the limited checking procedure does not entail the complete invalidity of the act and dismisses the appeals lodged as it does not find the circumstance of no defence that is required for cases of mere voidability to be declared null and void.

In the rulings of 1 December and 30 December, the Court confirms the authority of the provincial tax offices to regulate the fees paid to the chambers of commerce [Recurso Cameral Permanente] . However, the second ruling partially cancels the amount paid as the Alava Tax Office was found not to have territorial competence as it was based on information obtained directly by that tax office in the course of proceedings to obtain information from a tax payer of Gipuzkoa, without requiring the prescriptive help of the tax office of that province. In the same way, the ruling of 3 February 2015 cancels the injunction for information issued by the Bizkaia tax office to a company whose address for tax purposes is in Madrid.

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