The tax on deposits in Catalonia penalizes savings by businesses and households

Regarding the establishment by the Government of the Autonomous Community of Catalonia of a tax on deposits by households and businesses in credit institutions, the AEB, as it has already stated on previous occasions concerning similar regional taxes, considers:

1. The tax represents a penalty on the most traditional and accessible form in which citizens materialize their savings.
2. It penalizes and discourages savings in an economy such as Spain’s which, due to a lack thereof, needs to resort to external financing.
3. It fragments the Spanish financial market and makes it more inefficient. It also damages the free movement of capital and services, and disrupts free competition.

The tax measure on deposits recently proposed by the Government seeks precisely to avoid the segmentation of the financial market and the other negative consequences mentioned above.