Representatives of the Balearic Villa Associations have come to an agreement in principal with the tax authorities on how to collect and pay the the new tourist ‘ECOTAX’ that’s due to be imposed this coming summer.
The tax will be calculated using a ‘modules system’ that takes into account the sleeping capacity of the villa plus the dates it is occupied. This does not apply to private apartments as under current legislation it is prohibited for them to be rented out to tourists.
Roberto San Esteban, President of AVAT (the Ibiza and Formentera Villa Association) said that this is the “least worst” way for owners to collect and pay the tax but regrets that many villas are already booked for the coming summer forcing his members to “pay more”.
The payment formula will be introduced at the same time as the new law is implemented and instead of paying the usual €1 + IVA per person per night the villa owners and operators will pay according to the size of the property and number of bedrooms/beds. San Esteban went on to say that many villas are in the process of legalization so as yet “there is no control” over them.
It’s also been agreed that because each of the Balearic Islands has different occupation months this will be taken into account using a ‘correction factor’. San Esteban commented that holiday homes in Mallorca have a 6 month period of occupation while Ibiza only has three and a half months and Menorca and Formentera even less. “We discussed this correction factor and reached a consensus. Now we just need the approval of Viviana de Sans” said the representative of AVAT, which has 212 members even though the official number villas registered or being registered in Ibiza stands at 1,900.
The tax payment will take place between May and June of the following year of activity; i.e. owners/operators will pay the ECOTAX for summer 2016 in 2017. As the first year is “difficult to assess”, from January next year, interested parties may change to a module that better suits depending on the activity recorded in the previous summer but San Esteban warns that the Tax Agency has control mechanisms in place to ensure that villa owners/operators do not try to avoid paying part of the tax with a module that isn’t representative of the actual occupation. “Just by looking at electricity and water bills you can see the use (and occupation) of the property”.
It was also agreed at the meeting that a Balearic ‘holiday home’ census would be created for the first time using all available data from the tax agency and the Balearic Ministry of Tourism.
San Esteban welcomed the special inspections recently announced by Viviana de Sans for this coming summer to root out unfair competition and expected them to be “intense”. The President of AVAT remarked that there are unscrupulous operators who come to the island for August armed with just a website and a mobile phone who don’t pay any taxes and deceive clients who are left stranded without any liability insurance”.
"MAN IN SAN AN" by Martin Makepeace 
Are you able to provide full details of how the tax is being calculated and collected by the modules system in 2017 please.
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You would need to speak to a local gestoria or PIMEEF.
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