Nearly half of the Ibex 35 invoices and pays more tax outside Spain than within Spain

Nearly half of the companies in the Ibex 35, the stock market index comprising the largest Spanish listed companies, pay more than half of their taxes outside Spain, in line with Ferrovial, which pays up to 82 % abroad. This tax payment goes hand in hand with its turnover, a large part of which is produced in those international markets where it pays most tax.

The weight of the tax contribution abroad has been one of the arguments put forward by Ferrovial to explain why it makes sense to move its head office to the Netherlands – from where it is confident that it will find it easier to gain a foothold in other capital markets, including Wall Street – a decision that has provoked energetic rejection, with almost hysterical reactions that have reached the point of insult on the part of the government.

Although many companies do not want to disclose this detailed information or claim to be unaware of it, the data compiled by EFE show that more than half of the members of Spain’s main stock market indicator pay more in taxes outside Spain than inside.

This is a distribution in line with the fact that 60 % of Ibex 35 companies also generate more than half of their business outside Spain.

The tax contribution is made up of the amount paid in corporate income tax – which is levied on company profits – and other taxes “borne” or paid by the company (such as social security contributions); as well as taxes “collected” by them but which do not represent a cost to them (such as withholding taxes on workers on account of personal income tax).

In 2019, the tax contribution in Spain of the Ibex 35 companies was around 42.5 billion, according to PwC, an amount that fell during the pandemic, but which recovered to 37.7 billion in 2021.

According to EFE’s calculations, the global tax contribution of all of them in 2022 will exceed 80 billion, and about half will be taxes from other countries.

Santander, BBVA and Inditex more than 70% abroad

The big banks Santander and BBVA, for example, according to data provided by themselves, paid 78.9% and 74.1% of their taxes abroad in 2021 (89% and 83% of their turnover also comes from outside Spain).

However, CaixaBank, which focuses more of its activity in Spain, paid only around 7% of its tax contribution abroad in 2022, which amounted to 1,902 million.

Banco Santander paid 20,4776 million in taxes in 2022 worldwide. Of this amount, 4,258 million was in Spain and 16,218 million abroad (79.2%). For corporate income tax alone, 70% was paid abroad, although the previous year it was 90%.

Likewise, BBVA paid 8,215 million euros in taxes in 2021 (it does not provide disaggregated data for 2022), of which 2,131 million euros were paid in Spain and 6,084 million euros abroad (74.1%). That year 93% of corporate tax was paid abroad, although in 2022 it was 82%.

Neither Bankinter nor Sabadell have provided EFE with data on their tax contribution, while Unicaja pays all its taxes in Spain. The insurer Mapfre, with a large presence in Latin America, paid 376.2 million in taxes last year, 68 % of them abroad.

The tax contribution of Inditex, Spain’s largest listed company, in its 2021 fiscal year (the last for which figures are available, as it will present its full-year accounts on 15 March) was 6,093 million, of which 1,501 million was paid in Spain. The remaining 75.4% was paid abroad.

Large telecoms are also taxed more than 70% offshore

Another company that pays a large part of its taxes abroad is the telecommunications infrastructure company Cellnex, specifically 78.2 % in 2022, when in Spain it paid 111.7 of the 513.3 million tax contribution in all its markets. This distribution is in line with a company that obtains 83 % of its turnover outside Spain.

The same is true of Telefónica, which last year paid 7,669 million in taxes worldwide, 70.3% of which was outside Spain, as well as the plasma derivatives multinational Grifols (77% outside Spain).

There are other companies which, given their type of business and despite the scant data they provide, are also likely to pay more taxes outside Spain than inside, such as Logista, Acerinox, ArcelorMittal and the technology services provider for tourism companies Amadeus -one of the two largest in the world-.

The case of the Ibex 35 socimis (exempt from corporate tax) is disparate. While Colonial paid 65% of the 129 million paid in 2021, Merlin only paid 7% of the 223 million paid last year.

Disparity between energy companies and builders

In the case of Ferrovial, 82 % of the 1,569 million tax contribution last year was abroad and the remaining 282 million was paid in Spain, where for years it has not made a disbursement due to the tax losses it incurs in the country.

On the other hand, in the case of Acciona, the percentage of the tax contribution in Spain with respect to the total does not reach 43 %, while in that of ACS, with Florentino Pérez at the head, it is around 60 %, and in that of Sacyr, 56 %.

The distribution of the tax contribution in the energy sector is also uneven: Iberdrola reports 7,500 million paid in taxes in 2022, 65 % of which (4,900 million) is abroad.

By contrast, Repsol’s share is 29.4% (5,000 million out of 17,000 million), Naturgy’s 24.4% (853 million out of 3,503 million) and Endesa’s 15% (out of a total of 3,843 million).

Rovi, Redeia or Solaria, almost all their taxes in Spain

Also in line with the location of their activity, other companies pay practically all their taxes in Spain, as is the case of Laboratorios Rovi, Redeia (the Spanish electricity system operator), the energy company Solaria or even the Spanish airport manager, Aena, which only paid 10% abroad in 2022 (a percentage very similar to that of its turnover abroad).

There are companies that do not provide this data, such as the swimming pool equipment company Fluidra, the airline holding company IAG or the hotel chain Meliá, or the aerospace and defence technology group Indra, among others.