The application is already under examination by the EC, which has a period of 12 months, from the date of its registration (July 2019), to open infringement proceedings considering that there is a violation of Union law or to file the complaint (Photo Pedro Seoane)

As announced during the 7th Nautical Congress, held in Palma in March of this year, ANEN and AEGY have brought before the European Commission the complaint against Spain for the application of the registration tax (IEDMT). The complaint was officially filed last July.

The decision to raise the demand was taken by both associations after the internal roads had been exhausted, after 12 years of intense work with Spanish public administrations without effective results.

The legal argument provided by ANEN and AEGY to the EC is reinforced by the entry into force on 1 January 2011 of the First Additional Regulation of Law 38 / 1992 of 28 December 1992 on excise duties, which establishes a new tax act of the IEDMT (accompanying the already existing registration in Spain):"the use or movement in Spain by persons or entities resident in Spain or holding establishments located in Spain."

Since IEDMT is not a harmonised tax, the European Commission may consider it incompatible with European law, especially in the case of this second tax act introduced by the said provision, inter alia, for the following reasons:

• Possible violation of the principles of Union law, such as the freedom of movement of persons, services, capital and goods.

• A possible violation of the principle of economic capacity by establishing as a taxable subject the "user" of the vessel, which may have nothing to do with the legal ownership of the vessel.

• Possible interference with customs arrangements for means of transport in the Union Customs Code (e.g. Temporary Import Scheme).