The Government is working on a proposal to fiscally penalize landlords who raise rental prices. The punishment will actually be the reduction of the 50% bonus on personal income tax income that landlords already enjoy, for the mere fact of putting their home on the rental market, regardless of its price, and “in no case” will it reach 0%, “because a differentiated treatment is maintained for long-term residential rentals and tourist or seasonal rentals,” explain ministerial sources. That is, even whoever raises the rent would continue to receive a bonus, although less than currently.
The measure, advanced by El País, and which elDiario.es has been able to confirm, is not yet closed and would require parliamentary support, but the Executive defends that it is “in line with what the Government always defends”: “Encourage behaviors that are in the general interest and discourage those that do not.” President Pedro Sánchez announced a month ago a new 100% personal income tax bonus for those landlords who do not raise the rent, with hundreds of thousands of contracts that were signed at lower prices during the pandemic on the verge of renewal. The proposal was rejected by the majority of parliamentary partners, including Sumar.
The new plan thus contemplates a penalty for anyone who chooses to raise prices, which in the last five years have registered increases of up to 40%, according to the calculations of the coalition’s minority partner. In fact, Sumar has already spoken out against this idea, raised at the negotiating table. “Landlords already enjoy a 50% reduction in personal income tax, so providing a fiscal disincentive for rent increases is only a reduction of the privilege,” point out voices from the group, who consider that this, “as the only measure, does not have the capacity to stop the upward spiral of prices.”
The Housing Law already contemplates certain incentives via personal income tax. Apart from the general 50%, which the state standard reduced from 60%, a 60% deduction is allowed for those who rehabilitate their home; 70% for those who rent to young people; or 90%, if the price is lowered by five points. The main handicap that the Ministry of Housing has encountered is that these awards only apply in areas declared stressed, until now minority and with the PP against applying them, except in Galicia, so, in practice, these measures are without effect.
To alleviate the blockage, the Government already proposed more than a year ago a tax exemption of up to 100% of personal income tax for owners who rent their homes anywhere in the territory, whether or not it has been declared a stressed area. The measure has not yet been carried out and some experts warn that it would clash with Sánchez’s latest announcement, of reaching the same prize simply for not raising prices, instead of lowering them, as had previously been proposed.
However, the proposal once again shows the discrepancies within the Government regarding housing. “Sumar believes that the solution to this crisis cannot come from the voluntariness of one party. In that case, from the good will of the landlord,” they defend from Yolanda Díaz’s formation, which is committed to an extraordinary extension of contracts as the “most effective way to immediately intervene in the rental market.” An idea that, until now, the socialist wing of the Executive has rejected.
Source: www.eldiario.es
