Másmóvil buys time in a new tax lawsuit. The National Court has decided to provisionally suspend two ‘invoices’ issued by the National Markets and Competition Commission (CNMC) of the so-called general operator rate, which aims to cover the administration’s expenses for the supervision and surveillance of the sector. . The company has justified before the magistrates the request for a stop while the two appeals are elucidated, alleging the energy crisis, which has implied a “fall in income and a rise in prices”, and the shortage of electronic components.
One of these settlements corresponds to the 2018 fiscal year and involves a disbursement of just over 800,000 euros. The other refers to the year 2017 and amounts to almost 750,000 euros, as reflected in both orders issued by the National Court dated at the end of last July. This rate may never exceed two per thousand of the gross operating income, as reflected in the general law that was renewed more than a year ago. The specific type is established in each of the General Budgets.
The CNMC, in charge of managing this fee, which mainly finances its surveillance and management activity, is the one that carries out a first settlement. Másmóvil appealed to the Central Economic-Administrative Court, dependent on the Ministry of Finance, but it also closed the door, forcing it to start the contentious process in court. He appealed to the Court. And while the substance of the matter is resolved, a precautionary suspension is requested to avoid paying those 1.5 million now.
The teleco justifies in one of the cases that the payment was already suspended during the processing of its administrative appeals before the CNMC itself thanks to a bank guarantee, the effects of which extend until now. For this reason, its others are linked to the situation of the sector: it points to a “time of energy crisis, which is leading to a drop in income and a rise in prices.” Add in the “shortage of certain essential components” for the telecom business, leading to “an increase in the amount of products stocked on its behalf.” Although it is not enough for the State Attorney’s Office, they give the green light. In the other order, which corresponds to the settlement of the 2017 financial year, the specific reasons are not discussed and it is authorized via the fast track.
In addition to Másmóvil, others have also requested the precautionary suspension of the payment of this fee in the courts with very different results. The most recent cases have to do with Evolutio Cloud Enabler, the company that was built with the sale of a part of the British Telecom (BT) business in Spain to the Portobello venture capital fund. He achieved two temporary paralysis in the National Court. On the other hand, Vodafone did the same just over two years ago for a settlement of 2.5 million euros and was denied by the judges.
There is no updated data, since the Treasury does not offer specific collection figures by figure. But the sector’s employers’ association, DigitalES, provided figures up to 2019 in a study on the taxation of these companies. Specifically, in the seven years from 2013 to 2019, more than 160 million euros were collected for this special rate, with very strong growth in that last year.
The tax battle
The battle against this general rate is related to the one maintained by the Tax on Economic Activities (IAE). The CJEU ruled in favor of the telecom companies and confirmed that the IAE did not comply with the European Directive on Electronic Communications Networks and Services for several reasons, among which was that the taxable event is already covered by the rate. After the Supreme Court’s final ruling, a trickle of favorable rulings and million-dollar returns came. Másmóvil was no exception and, as The information advanced, it recently achieved its first victory.
This last one from the IAE is the most relevant lawsuit to date for Másmóvil. Today it has two fronts open, as reflected in its annual accounts for fiscal year 2022. One comes from a 2015 inspection of the subsidiary Xtra Telecom -acquired by Másmóvil a year before-. No impact on the accounts was foreseen since, according to the signed contract, the responsibilities derived from cases like this had to be assumed by the previous owner. The other has its origin in another investigation in February 2018 that involved the payment of 367,000 euros. This has been appealed to the National Court without there having yet been a ruling.
