The plenary of Municipality of La Orotava will address this Tuesday, October 25, 2022, the latest modifications of the municipal tax ordinances that include a reduction for 2023 of 2.2% in the Real Estate Tax (IBI)popularly known as the contribution. The Town Hall maintains a hundred bonuses and incorporates some more, such as 95% in the tax on constructions for the installation of systems for thermal or electrical use of solar energy, or the 30% discount on the parking reservation rate for those plays.
the village mayor, Francisco Linares (CC)and the mayor of Economy and Finance, Felipe David Benitez (CC), offered this Monday, October 24, a press conference in which they detailed that the commitment to a moderate reduction in tax pressure is maintained, which “since 2019 has allowed the villeros to save 1.5 million euros in a historical situation very complicated”. The councilor stressed that “in 2023, while everything is going up, in La Orotava we keep lowering taxes and fees, involving all political groups».
The star measure will be the reduction of the IBI, which is the most important tax for collection in the municipality and the one that entails the most economic effort for taxpayers. “It is what the neighbors pay to have a home and, in 2023, the city council will make a significant economic effort to lower that tax, which was one of the few that had not been touched in these years,” Benítez stressed.
La Orotava will apply in 2023 a 95% bonus in the construction tax for the installation of systems for the thermal or electrical use of solar energy
Another important measure “for the promotion of sustainability, the defense of the environment and the promotion of energy saving” is the maintenance of the bonus of 40% of the IBI for a period of 20 years for properties that are equipped with solar panels for thermal or electrical use. In addition, the local government proposes “taking the tax credit to install these solar panels in homes up to the maximum allowed by law, which goes from 50 to 95%”. Currently, there are more than 1,200 homes with solar panels in the Villa, which boasts of being “one of those that has maintained the IBI bonus for the longest time to encourage the use of solar energy.”
Regarding support for small businesses and entrepreneurs, the Villero Consistory will maintain the 15% reduction in the garbage rate for all SMEs, and the reduction of 75% for 5 years in the same rate for entrepreneurs who start up a new business project. In Benítez’s opinion, “it will be an important help for the consolidation of new businesses in those first years.”
Entrepreneurs who start up a new company will be able to benefit from a 75% reduction in the rate for garbage collection for five years
The person in charge of the area of Economy and Finance assured that «La Orotava is also at the forefront of tax credits in the Canary Islands, with 30% reductions in garbage and water supply rates for large families; 50% of the garbage rate for pensioners, or 100% of the mechanical traction vehicle tax for people with disabilities. Social measures that we are going to maintain, such as others that encourage the protection of the environment, which is the case of the 75% reduction in the running of electric or hybrid vehicles. The rehabilitation of houses in the historic complex also has a bonus of up to 90% in licenses and construction tax.
Francisco Linares and Benítez highlighted that, despite its old fame as an expensive municipality, «the Ministry of The Treasury placed La Orotava in 2021 with a fiscal pressure below the average of the State, the province and the municipalities with a similar population». A positive figure for a town that, according to the local government, “returns to its neighbors twice what they pay each year in taxes and fees.”
A total of 1,200 homes in La Orotava already have systems for the thermal or electrical use of solar energy
Linares recognized that “talking about taxes and fees never pleases anyone, but these revenues are fundamental and essential for a municipality to function. Without taxes or fees we would not have a music and dance school; we would not have scholarships nor an annual educational expenditure of 3 million euros; nor a continuous cultural program that costs almost a million euros; neither Open House of Youth nor youth policies worth 500,000 euros per year, and there would be no subsidies to the 60 sports clubs in the municipality.
For the mayor, the level of compliance with tax obligations by the villeros is worth highlighting, “because it is close to 90%.” Some taxes and fees that have allowed the municipality to overcome the worst moments of crisis due to the pandemic, “without eliminating the more than one hundred bonuses that keep us at the forefront in the Canary Islands”. Linares recalled that in order to overcome such difficult times, it has been essential “to win two battles: that the State allow the municipalities to dispose of their savings responsibly, and that the banks not charge the municipalities that revolutionary tax that they intended to charge for having everyone’s money entered.
