The Finance Ministry is going to have more problems than it expected with the poorly-named céntimo sanitario, a tax on hydrocarbons that helps pay for healthcare. Most regional governments in Spain are levying the tax.
The céntimo sanitario, which goes toward healthcare services and environmental issues, was levied illegally between 2002 and 2012. In 2012, the government, already concerned about disapproval from the European Court of Justice, eliminated the tax and replaced it with what it called the Special Tax on Hydrocarbons. The tax was never well-received, whether in its former or current guise. Drivers and transportation companies carried the weight, and fuel companies paid the price. For the transportation companies, the cost of business rose. In Castile-Leon, gas sales fell 25% as a result.
What has happened with the céntimo sanitario shows that taxpayers are unwilling to deal with taxes that the government creates to pump their coffers full of tax revenues and later learns are illegal. Transportation companies, which account for 35% of the people affected by the tax, have to search their receipts when asking the Finance Ministry for refunds.
The Tax Office's bill could go from 4 billion to 10 billion euros. A blow this heavy would thwart the national budget objective and backfire on Finance Minister Montoro, who approved the second iteration of a tax that previous governments killed.