A group of socialist mayors from municipalities in the province of Jaén gathered before the Regional Government of Andalusia's delegation to demand the inclusion of their towns in the tax reductions applied to the income tax (IRPF) modules for the agricultural and livestock sector. The measure, published in the Official State Gazette (BOE), aims to alleviate losses incurred due to exceptional circumstances but has caused discontent over the territorial distribution of beneficiary municipalities.
The ministerial order establishes different tax modules, setting the index at 0.13 for 50 municipalities, while another 47 have been excluded from these reductions. Mayors, such as the one from Navas de San Juan, Joaquín Requena, have expressed their incomprehension seeing that neighboring municipalities do qualify for the tax break, despite the drought and market issues affecting the entire province.
“"It cannot be that one town has damages and the one next door does not. Here the entire province of Jaén has suffered the drought, the inclement weather, and all municipalities also suffer the expenses in olive groves caused by wars."
The municipal representatives are requesting the Regional Government of Andalusia to clarify the criteria used to determine which municipalities are included and which are left out, asking for the inclusion of all affected localities. They argue that the Regional Government is responsible for sending the list of towns with losses exceeding 30% to the Ministry of Agriculture to access these benefits.
The regulation, which modifies the modules of the objective estimation system for IRPF, includes adjustments for holdings affected by climatic adversities or market problems, with a particular impact on olive groves. However, the unequal territorial application has led agricultural organizations such as Coag, UPA, and Asaja to also express their discontent and demand a rectification.
