The Economy and Finance committee of the Barcelona City Council has given the green light to a 150% surcharge on IBI for holders of four or more tourist flat licenses. The measure will affect around 6,000 cases and will come into effect after the December plenary session.
The Economy and Finance committee of the Barcelona City Council approved this Friday, in an extraordinary session, to raise the IBI by 150% for holders of 4 or more licenses for tourist flats. The vote passed with the support of PSC, BComú, and ERC, the abstention of Junts, and the rejection of PP and Vox.
The Deputy Mayor for Economy, Jordi Valls, defended that the surcharge will serve to "toughen and discourage" this activity in the city until the licenses disappear in 2028. According to his data, the 150% increase will apply to around 6,000 cases, which is 60% of the total licenses. Another 1,200, or 11%, with between 2 and 3 licenses, will see a 100% increase.
"They are dedicated to exploiting an economic activity and want to relate to the City Council as if they were renting a flat, and no, it is not a flat, it is a pure and simple economic activity," Valls stated.
The council does not tax individuals with a single license, but primarily targets companies. The measure, which now enters a period for objections, must be validated in the December plenary session. This comes after the government's housing decrees lapsed in the Permanent Deputation of Congress following the votes against from PP, Vox, and Junts.
Junts councillor Arnau Vives lamented that the increase will not lower the taxes paid by citizens and warned that it increases legal insecurity. The spokesperson for the Comuns, Marc Serra, welcomed the measure but deemed it insufficient: "It will allow the IBI to be raised on 10,000 tourist flats, but the problem we have in Barcelona is not this, it is speculation. And that is why we say that the IBI must be reviewed for the 800,000 homes in the city."
From ERC, councillor Rosa Suriñach focused on empty properties and called for "raising the IBI on those flats that have been unoccupied for 2 years," in addition to a registry to account for them. PP councillor Víctor Martí described the increase as a "fiscal stab" to a group of owners, while the leader of Vox, Gonzalo de Oro, claimed that the initiative is "smoke" because it does not guarantee that those homes will enter the residential market.
With this step, owners of multiple licenses in Barcelona now know that they will face a surcharge on their IBI bill next year if the December plenary confirms it. The text will be publicly displayed for objections before its final approval.
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