Game over

SPAIN’S Blacklist of tax

defaulters will henceforth name only those with definite, confirmed debts.

The Supreme Court analysed four cases before announcing a decision that will now set jurisprudence. Two cases arose from the alleged debts of public bodies, including the Social Security Fund. Two others were related to two businessmen who lodged an appeal against Spain’s tax authority, Hacienda, after they appeared on its notorious 2018 Blacklist.

In all four cases, the

New clients

SANTANDER’S online Openbank is making a €50 payment to the holders of new accounts opened before February 20.

Unlike other banks whose sweeteners depend on new clients paying in their salary, Openbank is asking them only to deposit a minimum of €1,000 before March 8 and to keep it there until March 31 when they receive the €50.

The bank emphasised that there was no charge for opening, maintaining or closing the new account, and standard transfers in euros were free within the European Union.

Supreme Court concluded that the Blacklist should name only those with confirmed debts. This was the first time that the tribunal had ruled on the scope and interpretation of Blacklists referred to in Spain’s General Tax Law.

Legal sources explained that this latest decision questions the future of this type of list, although it appears that Hacienda has asked for time to study the decision and assess its implications and consequences.

According to these same sources, the Supreme Court’s decision was based on “overwhelming common sense” as it allowed taxpayers to exhaust all available options before they could be added to the

Cosentino fined

MULTINATIONAL marble company, Consentino, was ordered to pay €1.1 million compensation to five stoneworkers who contracted silicosis.

The company’s owner Francisco Fernandez Cosentino also received a sixmonth suspended prison sentence.

In a later statement he admitted providing insufficient information to a Vigo (Galicia) firm regarding the composition of Silestone, the company’s star surface composed of minerals, quartz and recycled materials.

This posed a “much greater health risk” to the five Vigo employees than natural stone, ruled judge Montserrat Delgado.

Accepting both the sentence and compensation, Fernandez Cosentino went on to say that the five affected staff members worked at a specific workshop.

Blacklist.

The tribunal’s decision also suggested that an affected taxpayer appealing against a Hacienda decision or demand could not be included while a case was ongoing, even if the debt was not paid.

This, the Supreme Court said, was the only way of ensuring that the Blacklist complied with the Constitution “and the right to honour and privacy”, bearing in mind that the alleged defaulter could later win an appeal after appearing on the list.

Unhappy staff

PERSONNEL at privatised air traffic control towers at 16 Spanish airports intend to continue stoppages each Monday throughout February.

The 162 employees work at airports in Alicante, Valencia, Ibiza, Sabadell, Vigo, Jerez, Sevilla, La Coruña, Madrid­Cuatro Vientos, La Palma, Fuerteventura, Lanzarote, Murcia, Castellon, Lleida and El Hierro.

In 2020 two companies, Ferronat and Saerco, paid the Spanish government €102 million to operate 12 of these airports for seven years.

The controllers decided to strike after negotiating the sector’s fourth collective bargaining agreement broke down in January.

The stoppages arrived at the same time as government plans to privatise the service at another seven control towers.

MICROSOFT’S acquisition of Activision was in question after the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) predicted harm to gamers.

The (CMA) already expressed concerns about Microsoft’s plans last year, but declared recently that the deal could adversely affect fans of video games.

The CMA has now published the provisional findings of its investigation into the Microsoft and Activision deal after deciding that this could result in higher prices, fewer choices, or less innovation for UK gamers.

The CMA suggested possible remedies that include Microsoft being forced to sell off Activision Blizzard’s business associated with the Call of Duty game.

Plenty space

MARK BOGGETT, Seraphim Space’s CEO, described last January’s failed Virgin Orbit satellite launch from Cornwall as “a slight setback.”

The UK, whose space industry currently supports nearly 50,000 jobs, remained a global leader, and was currently attracting more investment in space projects than any other country apart from China and the US, Boggett insisted.

Despite the Virgin Orbit setback, Boggett believed there was still “significant dry powder” by way of cash reserves that corporations and private equity funds were prepared to deploy for attractive investment opportunities in Britain’s space industry.

Dow Jones

Not so cheap

UK consumer association

Which? found that shopping at the big supermarkets’ convenience stores could add more than £800 (€902) to a family’s yearly food bills. Tesco Express charged higher prices, Which? said, and also found that Sainsbury’s Local outlets were more expensive for essentials.

On the payroll

ANTONIO GARAMENDI, president of Spain’s Confederation of Business Organisations (CEOE), is no longer registered as a self­employed ‘autonomo’. Instead Garamendi now draws an annual salary of €400,000, an improvement of 9 per cent on his income during his first term as CEOE president.

Not me

LIZ TRUSS admitted to a Spectator interviewer that cutting the 45p (88 cents) tax rate was “perhaps a bridge too far.” She also argued that it was not fair to blame her for rising mortgage rates and said she believed that there were other factors involved apart from the mini­budget.

Profits down

SPANISH insurance company Mapfre earned €29.5 billion last year with premiums growing by 10.8 per cent to €24.540 billion. Profits fell by 16 per cent to €642 million, owing to the impact of inflation, an increase in the number of accidents and ongoing drought in some regions.

On the road

CAR sales in the UK last month grew by 14.7 per cent compared to January 2022 with a total of 131,994 vehicles registered. The MG HS hybrid was the best­selling car while Nissan’s Qashqai ­ the UK’s mostbought new car in 2022 ­ fell to third behind the VW TRoc.