The battle against the General Operators Tax is nothing new. Telephone companies in Spain have been fighting against this tax for years. However, over the last few years, operators have “ignored” the payment of this tax. And on this occasion, Telefónica and Vodafone have managed to beat the CNMC, as the National Court has ruled in favour of these companies, annulling the liquidations of the taxes they paid during the 2013 financial year.
The battle between the National Commission of Markets and Competition (CNMC) and operators over the payment of the well-known operator fee, or General Operator Fee, has been going on for years. It should be remembered that this fee is part of the financing of this regulator. However, one of the latest conflicts that remained open has caused the Administration to return the full amounts plus late payment interest on the amounts that have already been paid.
These two operators receive a refund
Among the four rulings from June, to which the newspaper CincoDías has had access, it can be seen that the National Court tips the balance in favour of Telefónica and Vodafone. In this way, the liquidations of the operator tax that they had to face during the 2013 financial year are cancelled.
A definitive result with which these two operators will receive a full refund of the amounts they paid at the time, plus late payment interest on said amounts, following the rulings of the Central Economic-Administrative Court (TAEC). In this way, Telefónica will receive a refund of up to 4.9 million euros, while Vodafone will receive an income of 758,394 euros.
These latest rulings by the AN, dated last June, show how the CNMC fails to comply with the principle of equivalence between the income obtained from the TGO and the expenses incurred by the regulator that are associated with the activities of “issuing, management, control and execution of general authorisations and individual licences”. Therefore, if this is the case, they show how the regulator exceeded by up to 30% the total amount of expenses associated with this activity, as argued by the operators.
What is the operator rate
It should be noted that this type of tax that telephone companies in Spain must assume must not exceed 1 per thousand of the gross income they obtain. And, in addition, said tax is “intended to cover the expenses generated, including those of management, control and execution, by the application of the legal regime established in the LGT”. In addition, said tax has been regulated by the General Telecommunications Law for more than 20 years, specifically, since 2023.
Therefore, this payment is intended to cover part of the CNMC’s expenses related to, as we said, “the issuance, management, control and execution of general authorisations and individual licences”. And it is precisely for this reason that telecos have resorted on different occasions to all possible instances to appeal these payments.
