Palma's vehicle tax is the highest in Spain

RESIDENTS in Palma pay the highest vehicle tax in the country, a study carried out by Madrid City Council and the Inland Revenue claimed yesterday.
As a rejoinder, Palma City Council has confirmed that it can't put up the tax any further because it is already touching legal limits.

Julio Martinez, spokesman for the opposition Partido Popular (PP) on Palma City council, said that in 2007 - the last year that the PP were in power in the city - Palma already had the fifth highest vehicle tax in the country. “In just three years,” said Martinez “it has become the most expensive.” The spokesman also pointed out that Vehicle taxes have surged way above the cost of living index (IPC). “They have in fact doubled,” said Martinez. Other figures emerging from the tax reports yesterday showed that four of the five taxes collected by local authorities in Palma are ranked above the national average.

So far as Vehicle tax is concerned, the national average tax burden is 75.7 percent whilst in Palma it stands at 100; Economic activity tax in Spain averages at 44.18 percent, but in Palma it is 60.74; Property tax nationwide is 91.77 percent, in Palma 100; and Construction tax in Spain is 89.9 percent but in Palma it's 100.

The PP said they felt on solid ground yesterday by claiming that throughout the term of office of the present Socialist coalition on Palma City Council, the municipal tax burden has increased. “A time of economic crisis,” said Martinez, “is not what one would describe as the best moment to burden citizens with the highest Vehicle tax in the country. “Nor should hard-pressed residents have to pay taxes which are well above the cost of living index,” he concluded.