The government does not find credible the explanations offered by Ferrovial’s management, which link the transfer of its headquarters to Holland with the search for greater “legal security” than Spain has. The chief executive’s sources said on Thursday that it was “ridiculous” to leave the company when, they said, “bostal” investments were coming into the Spanish territory.
Moncloa believes that what is really behind the movement is the “personal interest” of the company’s president, Rafael del Pino, who has assets worth 3,800 million euros – according to Forbes magazine – to achieve tax breaks in the Bajo countries. And avoid paying property taxes in Spain.
Pedro Sánchez’s team, which began this Thursday a new European tour that will see it visit Ireland, Denmark and Finland in just two days, will discuss the arguments of the Faroese leadership to leave Spain, along the same lines as the minister. Economy, Nadia Calvino, spoke on Wednesday. “Spain has given everything to Ferrovial,” he assured, recalling that the company “was born and grew in Spain and thanks to public investment by Spanish citizens.”
Moncloa is also troubled by the way Del Pino’s team communicated their decision to the executive because, they say, the company president himself was trying to contact Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez. The company’s board of directors. The Presidency of the Government claims, as Calvino did on Wednesday, that the country has one of the best levels of legal security in the world and is generally “at the top” in all international indexes.
In terms of legal stability, Moncloa argues that Spain ranks higher than the US and the Netherlands. The only difference with the latter is that the tax burden in the Netherlands is lower than in Spain “for companies, but above all for individuals”. Thus, they influence the idea that it was this “personal interest” of Rafael del Pino that would have motivated the departure of the company. The president also notes that Del Pino has been paying minimal taxes through his companies “for years” because he benefits from tax credits, and believes that the move to the Netherlands can be explained by the expiration of these credits in the coming years. which forces him to increase his contribution.
The government is not afraid of the “contagion effect”
They also note in Moncloa that although they are studying the reasons given by the company and analyzing what happened, they do not believe that it is “obvious” to paralyze the business movement. But neither do they believe there will be a “contagion effect” in other companies they take more seriously than under Del Pino’s chairmanship.
However, the executive believes that Ferrovial’s gesture “weakens” the whole of Europe in the face of the threat of a kind of tax dumping battle between EU partners, which will cause companies to constantly change their location and try to eventually pay the taxes. About 0.02% of their profits, as Moncloa points out, happened in some US states. The “fiscal race,” Sánchez’s team adds, will put the continent on a dangerous path at a time when society is determined to deal with the crises stemming from the pandemic and the war in Ukraine, trying to do as little damage as possible. It is possible to reach citizens’ pockets. Moncloa also emphasizes that Ferrovial is a company that makes a lot of money thanks to Spanish investments.
However, the government is criticizing the PP, which attributes Ferrovial’s decision to executive power politics, out of step with “reality”. And they insist on the coalition’s “tax harmonization” work, that Spain is in the world’s “top ten” in terms of legal security, and that it has not stopped welcoming foreign investment.
Source: El Diario
