On 27 January, the Government of the Autonomous Community of Navarre is organising a conference entitled “Economic Agreement, an essential part of the Autonomous Community of Navarre”.

It will be opened by the President of the Government, María Chivite, and after a speech by the former Regional Minister of Economy and Finance, Jose Antonio Asiaín, on the past, present and future of the Agreement, prominent officials from the Foral Treasury will speak on the current status of the Agreement, both in terms of tax and financial aspects.

The conference can be followed by streaming from the Navarrese Government’s website.

Programme of the conference

Link to the conference

Last 17th November, a meeting of the Joint Commission of the Economic Agreement (CMCE) was held, in which different tax and financial issues were agreed.

Among the first ones, it has been agreed the agreement of two new tax figures -Special Tax on Non-Reusable Plastic Containers and the Tax on the Deposit of Waste in Landfills, Incineration and Co-incineration of Waste- as well as the adaptation of the Economic Agreement to the changes introduced in the Tax on Fluorinated Greenhouse Gases.

With regard to financial matters, the new Quota methodology for the five-year period 2022-2026 has been approved, which sets the provisional quota for the base year at €1,472M, as well as the definitive amounts of the Liquid Quota 2021, the Financial Compensations (definitive 2021 and provisional 2022) and the Valuation of Active Employment Policies (definitive 2021 and provisional 2022). In addition, approval has been given for the instrumentation of the financing of the management of the Minimum Vital Income and the Basque Country’s participation in the allocations of the System for Autonomy and Care for Dependency and in the extraordinary allocations to finance functions in health matters and for the scholarship supplement.

Finally, the Joint Committee of the Economic Agreement has ratified the agreement signed by the General Administration of the State and the Autonomous Community of the Basque Country on 28th September 2022 regarding budgetary stability for the year 2023.

Basque representatives

Foral representatives

The Official State Gazette of 20 October published Law 22/2022, of 19 October, which amends Law 28/1990, of 26 December, approving the Economic Agreement between the State and the Autonomous Community of Navarre. The last modification of the Navarre Agreement took place in 2015, through Law 14/2015, so that the present adaptation incorporates a significant number of modifications that adapt its content to the novelties introduced in the State legal system and which, for the most part, have been the subject of agreement with the Basque Country through Laws 10/2017, of 28 December and 1/2022, of 8 February, such as the Tax on Financial Transactions, the Tax on Certain Digital Services, the Tax on the Extraction of Gas, Oil and Condensates or the adaptation of VAT to the new special regimes introduced in its regulation.

The agreement has also incorporated the connection point of the new Tax on the Deposit of Waste, although it has not done so with respect to the Special Tax on non-reusable plastic containers, both pending agreement with the Basque Country.

Text of Law 22/2022

The IACFS 2022 conference will be held at the Bizkaia Aretoa in Bilbao on 27 and 28 October, organised by the Ituna Centre for Documentation and Research on the Economic Agreement and the Federal Treasuries (UPV/EHU).

The Conference of the International Association of Center for Federals Studies (IACFS) is one of the most important international academic events in the field of federalism, organised since its foundation in 1977. It has more than 30 affiliated centres or institutes from all continents and covers the main federal countries in the world, constituting one of the most important international academic events in the field of federalism.

This year’s conference will focus on fiscal federalism and territorial inequalities and the management of subnational public finances.

The International Association of Center for Federals Studies (IACFS), founded in 1977, is one of the leading international associations for research, dissemination and consultancy on federalism. It currently has more than 30 affiliated centres or institutes on all continents and covers all the major federal countries in the world.

The Conference is open to the public with prior registration and can be followed live via streaming on the Ituna Centre’s Youtube channel or on the Bizkaia Aretoa website.

Programme

Link to registration

In its recent judgement of 14 February 2022, for which the judge Luis Javier Murgoitio Estefanía has been the rapporteur, the High Court of Justice of the Basque Country confirms the capacity of the General Assemblies of the Historical Territories to regulate the so-called Capital Gains Tax, appealing to art. 42 of the Economic Agreement, which recognises the power to regulate, within their territory, The tax system of other taxes of the local bodies, different from the compulsory taxes agreed in the previous precepts of the Economic Agreement, in accordance with the general tax structure of the common system tax system, without establishing any other taxes different from those in force in the latter, the yield of which may be subject to transfer or repercussion outside the Basque Country.

The point of connection, given the real nature of the tax, cannot be other than that of the location in space of the land on which the tax is levied.

Access to the judgment