ROYAL DECREE LAW 35/2020, ON URGENT MEASURES TO SUPPORT THE TOURISM, HOTEL AND CATERING AND TRADE SECTORS AND ON TAX MATTERS

Royal Decree-Law 35/2020 of 22 December (published in the BOE 23 December) on urgent measures to support the tourism, hotel and catering and trade sectors and on tax matters.

The most important measures it contains are the following:

(i) Extraordinary measures regarding the leasing of business premises:

In the absence of an agreement between the parties for the temporary reduction of rent or a moratorium on the payment of rent, subject to compliance with certain requirements, the lessee may apply to the lessor, when the latter is a company or public entity, or a large property owner for:

• A rent reduction of 50%
• A moratorium on the payment of rent.

The lessee may request the application of either of these two measures before 31 January 2021, for the duration of the State of Alarm established by Royal Decree 929/2020 of 25 October, and any extensions thereof, for up to four months thereafter.

The lessor will expressly communicate his decision to the lessor, within a maximum period of seven working days, from the time the request has been made by the lessor by a verifiable means.

(ii) Support measures in the field of labour and social security:

• Exemption from the payment of the employer’s contribution to social security and joint collection of contributions in respect of workers affected by temporary employment regulation schemes (ERTEs) who resume their activity as of 1 December 2020. Workers who have restarted their activity since the entry into force of Royal Decree Law 18/2020, of 12 May, shall also be exempt for the periods and percentages of the working day worked in that month, and workers whose activities are suspended in December 2020 or January 2021, for the periods and percentages of the working day affected by the suspension.

(iii) Measures in the field of taxation:

• Deferral, on certain conditions, of the payment of the tax debt corresponding to all those returns-settlements and self-assessments for which the period for presentation and payment ends between 1 April and 30 April 2021.

• Reduction in 2020 of the net yield calculated by the objective estimate method in personal income tax and of the tax payable on current transactions under the simplified VAT system.

• Reduction in the number of tax periods affected by the waiver of the objective assessment method for personal income tax for the years 2020 and 2021.

• Tax incentive to encourage the reduction of rental income.

(iv) Other measures

• Losses for the financial years 2020 and 2021 will not be taken into consideration for applicants who were declared beneficiaries of the regional incentives prior to the establishment of the State of Alarm by Royal Decree 929/2020, of October 25.

• Companies that generate productive activity in the months from April to October 2021, and that start or maintain during those months the employment of workers with discontinuous fixed character contracts, will be able to apply a bonus in those months of 50% of the business Social Security contributions.

• A new deadline is granted for the submission of applications for the special unemployment benefit regulated in Article 1 of Royal Decree Law 32/2020, of November 3.

January 2021