Our Senior Management Advisor, Albert Guasch, and the Right Honourable President Artur Mas met last week to record a video podcast to analyse inequalities and the impact of Inheritance and Gift Tax on Catalan society.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Guasch offers a critical and educational perspective on a tax which, as he explains, \u201ccreates a clear sense of lack of fairness\u201d and shows significant differences depending on the autonomous community in which it is paid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
During the conversation, Guasch highlights the fact that inheritance tax often comes at a particularly sensitive moment in people\u2019s lives, frequently with little consideration for families\u2019 personal circumstances. He also points out that the amounts paid in Catalonia are excessively high and generate a certain degree of legal uncertainty due to regulatory changes and the subjective criteria applied to specific aspects of the tax.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
To illustrate this, Guasch presents a real case: that of Manel, a bus driver from Barcelona who, upon his death, leaves his son a second family home in Tossa de Mar. Using this example, he shows how the same inheritance can go from paying \u20ac1,900 to almost \u20ac28,000 solely depending on the year of death and the legislative changes applied in Catalonia between 2020, the year of the pandemic, and 2022. \u201cIt was a political mistake to introduce these changes at that time,\u201d he states.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In response to Artur Mas\u2019s question about what politics can do to better regulate this tax, Guasch is clear: as long as almost nothing is paid in some autonomous communities and very high amounts are paid in others, the tax will never be fair. Among his proposals, he highlights simplifying the regulations, reducing tax rates as much as possible, and providing greater clarity and legal certainty so that \u201ceveryone knows what the rules of the game are.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The conversation also addresses the importance of lifetime succession planning. Guasch reminds us that any inheritance should be planned in advance and explains that there are simple solutions, such as distributing the inheritance among children and grandchildren, or lesser-known legal instruments \u2014such as the residual trust\u2014 that can significantly reduce the tax burden for heirs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The video podcast In Favour of Politics<\/em> is an initiative by President Artur Mas aimed at encouraging reflection on the major issues facing the country through dialogue with expert voices and in-depth conversations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n