48 votes: Mallorca backs open-ended REB tax regime
In Palma, Mallorca, the Balearic Parliament has voted to send an open-ended island tax regime into the next stage of scrutiny. The move passed on 22 September by 48 votes to seven. It would remove the six-year expiry date from the Special Economic and Tax Regime for the Balearic Islands, known as the REB.
The PP proposal was backed by PP, PSIB, Vox and independent MP Llorenç Córdoba. MÉS per Mallorca, Més per Menorca and Unidas Podemos voted against it.
PP spokesman Sebastià Sagreras said the regime should not expire while island life continues to raise the cost of transport, services and doing business. He said Menorca, Eivissa and Formentera face an added burden through double or triple insularity. The party says the REB should also better address housing, innovation and the extra costs linked to living on islands.
Row over rental-home tax breaks
The sharpest dispute centres on proposed tax advantages tied to homes put on the rental market. MÉS per Mallorca said the draft could let private individuals use the Balearic investment reserve for property rented out, with or without an option to buy, without setting a maximum rent or defining who the homes are for.
Its spokesman, Lluís Apesteguia, called the plan insufficiently ambitious and warned that some measures could harm the public. Més per Menorca also opposed the bill because it brings the property sector into the investment reserve and its tax benefits.
Vox backed sending the proposal forward but accused the PP of largely copying the existing REB. Unidas Podemos said it mistrusted several new measures and called for permanent free public transport to be included.
Amendments come next
PSIB supported the proposal but said it would table amendments drawn up with civil society groups to ease the costs of insularity. Córdoba also plans amendments, arguing that the islands do not all face the same extra costs and that Formentera's triple insularity needs clearer recognition.
He wants transport compensation to cover the full journey and for the island factor to reflect territorial balance between the islands. The proposal now moves into the parliamentary amendments stage.
Source: Europa Press / Mallorca.com