Resolutions 7 & 12/2012 assert the authority of the Arbitration Panel of the Economic Agreement [Junta Arbitral del Concierto Económico] to resolve disputes between the Historical Territories of the Basque Country and the Treasury Department of the Chartered Autonomous Community of Navarre, to evaluate matters of fact determinant for the location of the effective management headquarters and the place of administrative and business management, and to draw up a joint evaluation of the evidence submitted. The same overall evaluation is made in Resolution 11/2012 after an analysis of the valid period for the filing of a dispute in cases of transfer of registered address, asserting that the period envisaged for “positive disputes” is not applicable.

Resolution 8/2102 sets a precedent in regard to the participation of a public administration in the procedure for checking normal market value in operations between associated bodies subject to the authority of a different administration, affirming it in an appeal to the general principles of co-ordination and co-operation contained in the Economic Agreement.

Resolution 9/2012 analyses the dies a quo for calculating the period for the filing of a “positive dispute” brought prior to the effective constitution of the Arbitration Panel, and refers it to the date on which the Panel was constituted.

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The Bizkaia TEAF applies the doctrine delivered by the Board of Arbitration of the Economic Agreement regarding the transfer of outstanding VAT to be offset after a merger operation. It likewise confirms the provincial legislative capacity to regulate the transitional arrangements regarding the disappearance of the Recurso Cameral Permanente  (fees paid to the chambers of commerce).

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Zergak, the Tax Journal of the Basque Country, has published an article in Basque by Susana Serrano Gaztelurrutia (Ekonomia Ituna; ulertzen ez den bereizketa eta sortzen dituen ikusezinak) on the evolution of the Basque Economic Agreement from a generic perspective and on the conflicts ensuing from its application.  The article is aimed at those people who feel the need to further their knowledge despite being laymen in the subject.

In the same journal, Gemma Martínez Bárbara, head of Bizkaia Provincial Council’s Tax Policy Service, continues with the second part of the analysis of the different aspects of tax harmonisation in the Basque Country.

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 The latest issue of Hacienda Pública Española includes a paper by ANTONI ZABALZA MARTÍ, a Professor at the University of Valencia, analysing the problems of the VAT adjustment mechanism in the provincial financing system and formulating an alternative proposal.

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 In a ruling dated December 2, 2012 (Legal Grounding 5), the High Court of Justice of the Basque Country has confirmed the jurisprudence of the Constitutional Court concerning the efficacy of the so-called “ring-fencing” of provincial tax regulations in regard to appeals filed prior to the entry into force of Public General Act [Ley Orgánica] 1/2010, affirming its competence to hear appeals made during the relevant vacatio legis.

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