The government of Jaume Collboni manages to push through two of the three tax proposals with the support of Junts and ERC, but fails to approve the increase of the IBI for the 208 hotels with the highest cadastral value.
The full council of Barcelona has approved this Friday two of the three proposals into which the government of Jaume Collboni had divided the tax ordinances for 2027. The PSC executive has garnered the votes of Junts and ERC to freeze the tourist tax surcharge for hostel guests at four euros and to progressively raise the fee paid by cruise passengers who spend less than 12 hours in the city.
The fee for these cruise passengers will start at 12 euros in 2027 and rise to 24 euros by 2030. The third proposal, which included the bulk of the tax reform, has fallen due to the votes against it from Junts, PP, and Vox, along with the abstention of Barcelona en Comú.
The main novelty of that rejected package was the increase of the Property Tax (IBI) for the 208 hotels with the highest cadastral value in the city, which was to rise from 1.17% to 1.30%. The measure is currently ineffective.
The disagreement with the Comuns was repeated in the full council after it had already been voiced in the extraordinary economic commission last Tuesday. The party conditioned its support on the government renouncing the gradual increase of the tourist surcharge for luxury hotel clients and raising it suddenly to eight euros per night starting next year.
“We cannot continue applying patches while tourist apartments and cruises continue to strain housing,” sources from Barcelona en Comú defended during the debate.
This maximum of eight euros is what the legal modification approved by the Generalitat last spring allows. The government's proposal was for the fee to increase by one euro each year, from the five euros charged since last April until reaching eight euros in 2029.
With the rejection from the main bloc, the Barcelona City Council will have to renegotiate the tax ordinances for the next fiscal year. The municipal groups have already announced that they will maintain their positions in the coming weeks.
The session made it clear that Collboni's government does not have guaranteed support for the entirety of the municipal fiscal policy. The two approved proposals will, however, have direct effects on the pockets of visitors and on municipal revenue starting next year.
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