On July 9, Spain published a law against tax fraud (Law 11/2021), which brought Spanish legislation in line with Articles 7 and 8 of EU Council Directive 2016/1164 of 12 July 2016, laying down rules against the practice of tax evasion that directly affect the functioning of the internal market (known as the ATAD directive).
The concept of "tax haven" has now been replaced by the broader concept of "non-cooperative jurisdiction". In fact, a territory that has signed a tax treaty with Spain can be classified as a non-cooperative jurisdiction.
The list of non-cooperating jurisdictions will be approved by order of the ministry and will be updated to reflect the level of tax transparency of each jurisdiction, which will be determined based on criteria such as the existence of mutual assistance legislation for the exchange of information and effective compliance with the assumed obligations to exchange information, as well as the results of peer reviews. held, inter alia, by the OECD Global Forum on Transparency and Information Exchange for Tax Purposes.
A new tax of 15% is introduced as part of a special tax regime for SOCIMI. Real estate investment organizations, known as SOCIMI, or real estate investment funds, enjoy special corporate income tax rules, according to which they are generally taxed at a zero rate (except for certain types of income). The special tax rate of 19% applies only to dividends distributed to shareholders holding at least 5% if the dividend is exempt from tax or taxed at a rate of less than 10% to shareholders.
