New Tax on Car Hire

[Tonsyl]

I follow the arguments re the tax and car hire BUT, at the end of the day the very very high percentage of tourists do not rent cars for the duration of the holiday. Some will hire for a couple of days but probably over 90% go nowhere near rentals. Just look at the coaches outside the airport and the very full airport service buses to see that there are good alternatives, not to mention resort hopper and taxis. In case anyone is worried, I declare an interest in as much as we have hired cars, are hiring one now and will continue to do so.

 

[Sparky]

I think this tax will make a lot of tourists question whether they really need to have a hire car, a number of people i have spoken to in the past have said that very often they pick up the car, get to their accommodation, park it up and that's where it stays until they have to get back to the airport, so getting the shuttle or even a taxi will be much cheaper in the long run.
Of course if they are in a villa in the countryside it is necessary but if they are close to the Port or Town it's easy to walk, hop on the bus or get a taxi.

This tax could also make the hire car companies re think their fuel policies which have been ripping customers off for a long time.

 

[andrew711]

It might be noted that some car-rental firms are planning if they haven't already done so on shifting their tax location to parts of the mainland as a means of avoiding the tax being implemented. They would still be able to function on Mallorca but because vehicles would be registered elsewhere, the tax wouldn't apply, which would also mean that road tax wouldn't be paid to local town halls on Mallorca.

 

[Sparky]

That's interesting Andrew .

 

[Ronnie]

I think this tax will make a lot of tourists question whether they really need to have a hire car, a number of people i have spoken to in the past have said that very often they pick up the car, get to their accommodation, park it up and that's where it stays until they have to get back to the airport, so getting the shuttle or even a taxi will be much cheaper in the long run.
Of course if they are in a villa in the countryside it is necessary but if they are close to the Port or Town it's easy to walk, hop on the bus or get a taxi.

This tax could also make the hire car companies re think their fuel policies which have been ripping customers off for a long time.

What it means Sparky, in my opinion, is that you are now going to be forced to only rent a car for a couple of days. The cost for the eco tax will cost most people £100 for a fortnight, " Thats our initial shop when we arrive and lasts us for 5 - 7 days" Also the majority of the villas are countryside, with exceptions being LLenaire and Siller, so a car is necessary. Whether the car is sitting at your villa, its always good to know that you do'nt have to rely on bus timetable, expensive taxis or Walking times, not to mention the beautiful north of the island where you can visit other towns, restaurants and beaches. As I mentioned in my earliar post, I do not want to return to package holidays, coach journeys ETC ETC !!!!!!

 

[copper]

We had been thinking about a car this year but were already surprised at the cost compared to other places we go so have definately decided against it now

We are in the port anyway so dont need it on a daily basis and we have over the years visited everywhere we wanted to Had thought this year we might revisit a few places but we always find it hard to drag ourselves away from the port and lovely beach

Will just get a taxi back and forth to the airport and Im sure many people will do the same as the fuel policy is wrong anyway

 

[lovemallorca]

Some will hire for a couple of days but probably over 90% go nowhere near rentals. Just look at the coaches outside the airport and the very full airport service buses to see that there are good alternatives, not to mention resort hopper and taxis. In case anyone is worried, I declare an interest in as much as we have hired cars, are hiring one now and will continue to do so.

Mallorca has over 8.5m tourists per annum - If 10% of them choose to hire a car (I don't claim to know what the percentage is), then that is a very, very significant number of people and big business.

Clearly, the reason that local government have chosen to introduce the tax is that having seen all the numbers, they feel that the tax contribution would be worthwhile.

I don't doubt there are good alternatives to a car, but that there is still a huge number of hire cars shows that many still prefer to have one.

My concern is that with such fragile economic situation throughout europe, people are being very choosy about where they spend their money. Anything that puts a potential obstacle in the way of them choosing Mallorca should be considered with the upmost care.

 

[Baron de Lay]

The tax is totally ridiculous with no thought gone into it. It will do more harm than good and what a laugh it being taken to "help the environment".

What will the little Balearic islands participation in this do to help global warming?!

They want to put a tax on China's industries, burning all that fuel and pumping all those carbon emissions into the atmosphere.

Crazy....

Rather like a number of so called 'Environmental' taxes over here in the UK, this one has nothing whatsoever to do with saving the planet and everything to do with trying to save the Spanish economy!

 

[Nick]

So why is it only happening in Mallorca then ??

 

[lovemallorca]

So why is it only happening in Mallorca then ??

I suspect that politicians in mainland Spain are concerned about SEAT, the domestic car producer. It supplies very large numbers of cars to the rental market, and any reduction in sales could be a serious issue.

SEAT is the only company within the Volkswagen group that makes a loss, and it is public knowledge that the new boss of the company has to turn things around within a couple of years.

The introduction of the car hire tax in Mallorca could potentially reduce demand for Spanish-produced cars, and in raising a few Euros in Mallorca, could bring further unemployment to mainland Spanish industry..

 

[roig cat]

I have an idea! Why dont the car hire companies give the Balearic government all the profit they make on unused fuel rather than implement this green tax. I dont' believe for one minute that the car hire companies diclose to the tax authorities that they are making a sneeky profit by charging customers for fuel that they (Car comps) havnt purchased in the first place. Just a thought (I dont have many)

 

[Great Dane]

i have a car booked with Vanrell for end of April and when i asked they emailed me back to say I dont have to pay the car hire tax?

 

[El Gordo]

Any update on this new Tax?

Has anyone been charged yet for rentals lasting into April, when the tax is due to be enforced?

I'm picking up a rental tomorrow, the 31st and was wondering if I would be clobbered!!

 

[Luckyone]

Any update on this new Tax?

Has anyone been charged yet for rentals lasting into April, when the tax is due to be enforced?

I'm picking up a rental tomorrow, the 31st and was wondering if I would be clobbered!!

Hi El Gordo,

Hope you had a great holiday? Did you get 'clobbered' (hope not)? Have been trying the net but have not been able to get an update on the dreaded tax.

Thanks,
Lucky

 

[its cd]

Rented with vanrell from 25 march to 5 April and didn't pay any extra tax

 

[roig cat]

Rented with Centauro 6th to 15th April and tax wasn't mentioned or charged.

 

[Disorderly]

Just back from a short five day break and rented from Atisa - brand new car, free upgrade, full/full policy, no hassle to buy "extras" and efficient handover at the end.

Interestingly, no tax to pay......has it been shelved/postponed?

I'm interested as we're back in June and July for nearly four weeks and no tax would be a decent saving.

Duncan

 

[Sparky]

Just back from a short five day break and rented from Atisa - brand new car, free upgrade, full/full policy, no hassle to buy "extras" and efficient handover at the end.

Interestingly, no tax to pay......has it been shelved/postponed?

I'm interested as we're back in June and July for nearly four weeks and no tax would be a decent saving.

Duncan

Hi Duncan i have just read this in the UH with Google translation El Govern medita aplazar la entrada en vigor de los nuevos impuestos » Local » Noticias » Ultima Hora Mallorca

The Government ponders delay the entry into force of the new tax, which record the supermarkets, rental cars and containers.
The Council of Fiscal and Financial Policy is meeting this week and on the table is the possibility of relaxing the deficit target for 2013, located now at 0.7%. Catalonia is the community that has so far been more interest in easing the deficit, as it has not yet closed their budgets for this year, although Islands and others are also interested.
In this sense, Aguiló could accept postpone commissioning of the new taxes until 2014 if allowed to increase the deficit beyond the current 0.7%. It has not yet made a firm decision, but from the business sector is confident economic vice rectification, which would have gotten the blessing of Jose Ramon Bauza.
It depends on how much is allowed to increase the deficit of communities. In principle, the government ponders waive taxes this year and do in 2014, if, as rumored, the deficit could increase to 1.9 percent.
The pressures of the business sector has been intense. In fact, not only Aguiló Bauza and have been informed of the dire economic impact of the new taxes, but also Minister Jose Manuel Soria.
Inflexible
The businessmen believe, too, that the taxes on large surfaces, containers and rental cars do not become applicable. They also aim to put into operation in 2014 remains conditioned by the evolution of the Balearic economy. The financial vice-president had shown so far quite inflexible and only had accepted a reduction in the tax conditions.
The possible relaxation of the deficit has been determined by the change in attitude of Aguiló, but also influenced the possibility that a constitutional difficult recovery.
Business organizations have held several meetings with leaders of PSIB to convince the main opposition party of the need to resort to the Constitutional Court.

So it looks like we will find out this week if the tax will come into force this year or next or if ever .

 

[andrew711]

The taxes weren't in fact finally approved by the Balearic parliament until the last week of March. Word is they will come in on 1 May, just as the eco-tax did in 2002. The government's finance minister today ruled out any delay in their introduction.

 

[mwc]

The last I read they were possibly postponing it until next year. Just booked my car hire today, hope we don't get stuffed for this on collecting in June.