THE MUNICIPAL AGENCY DEPENDENT ON THE MUNICIPALITY OF MURCIA HAS ALREADY BEGUN TO SETTLE A GAIN AFTER THE ENTRY INTO FORCE OF THE NEW ROYAL DECRETO-LEY ADOPTED BY THE GOVERNMENT.

The Constitutional Court, in the recent Judgment 182/2021, dated October 26, 2021, has declared the unconstitutionality and nullity of articles 107.1 second paragraph, 107.2 a) and 107.4 of the Consolidated Text of the Local Treasury Law, where essential elements of the type are regulated, such as the tax base; or the method of calculating the value of the land, considering that the current objective and obligatory system for determining the taxable base of the tax unjustifiably contravenes the principle of economic capacity as a taxation criterion (art. 31.1 EC), since it determines that there has always been an increase in the value of the land during the tax period, regardless of whether there was such an increase and the actual amount thereof.

Regarding its scope, it establishes that "The declaration of unconstitutionality and nullity of articles 107.1 second paragraph, 107.2 a) and 107.4 TRLHL supposes its expulsion from the legal system, leaving a "regulatory vacuum on the determination of the tax base that prevents the liquidation, verification, collection and revision of this local tax and, therefore, its enforceability.”

In view of the Judgment and even prior to its publication in the BOE, the AMT of the Murcia City Council immediately suspended the issuance of settlements that were in the approval phase and paralyzed the notification processes of all those settlements already issued that were in the distribution phase. This has prevented thousands of affected taxpayers from having to claim the cancellation or refund of their settlement before the city council.

Likewise, the Agency has implemented a device to resolve "ex officio" the new legal situations raised from the date on which the aforementioned sentence was handed down, in order to avoid that citizens have to present numerous claims requesting the application of the same.

In this sense, it should be noted that the ruling limits its effects as follows:

“Those tax obligations accrued by this tax that, at the date of issuance, have been definitively decided by means of a judgment with the force of res judicata or by final administrative resolution cannot be considered situations that can be reviewed based on this judgment. For these exclusive purposes, they will also be considered consolidated situations (i) provisional or final settlements that have not been challenged on the date of issuing this sentence and (ii) self-assessments whose rectification has not been requested ex art. 120.3 LGT to that date.”

The Murcia City Council (AMT, CEAM, Directorate of Legal Services) is reviewing all appeals for replacement, economic-administrative claims and contentious-administrative appeals filed prior to the judgment, in order to apply this doctrine to all contested settlements and not definitively resolved.

The information on claims pending at the Municipal Tax Agency as of the current date is as follows:

a. Resources presented before the STC: 408, of which:

336 allege no increase in value.
72 allege other causes.
In amounts, the estimate between both assumptions:

Amount subject to return: €1,859,022.45
Amount subject to cancellation: €460,842.01
b. Resources presented in the period 10.26.2021 to 12.01.2021: 571.

Also affected and could be annulled by virtue of this ruling are the settlements made by declaration or as a consequence of the resolution of appeals and inspection for an amount of €1,758,333.71.

a) Settlements approved after the ruling (10/27/2021): €534,338.97.

b) Settlements approved before STC and without notification result: €894,856.45, of which:

€122,670.12 were paralyzed and no notification results have been received to date.
€722,186.33 with the notification process not started on 10/26 due to a payment letter being found at the Notary and later, after the STC, it was agreed to stop it. In addition, of these, €275,850.84 correspond to debtors in a situation of bankruptcy.
c) Settlements approved before STC and whose notification could not be stopped (both Post Office and bulletin) for which the result of notification after 10/26 has entered: €329,138.29

After the Constitutional Judgment, even before its publication, the Government of Spain has approved a Royal Decree-Law modifying the Consolidated Text of the Local Treasury Law, modifying the assumptions of subjection, the calculation of the tax base and the system tax calculation, in order to repair the regulatory gap that prevented the assessment, verification, collection and review of taxable events.

This RD-Law (RD-Law 26/2021) which entered into force the day after its publication