Spain Business
Spain Business Brief - Friday May 2 2008
By h.b.
May 2, 2008 - 9:46 AM

The Campaña de la Renta, the Agencia Tributaria tax campaign gets underway today with the Spanish authorities expecting 870,000 new tax payers this year – the highest number for several years, and up 5% on last year.
You have from today until June 30 to present your tax return for the last financial year, which runs in line with the calendar year in Spain. Hacienda will take 225 million € more from us than the rebates expected to be paid this year, although 14.2 million tax payers are expected to see a rebate this time round.

The ex director of the Government’s Economic Office, David Taguas, has been named as the new president of the Construction Company’s body, Seopán. It follows the death of Enrique de Aldama last September. The Prime Minister, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, is said to be ‘disagreeably surprised’ by the decision which the PP has described as indecent and petty tyranny.

Real Estate company Reyal Urbis has announced losses of 52.7 million € for the first quarter of the year. It’s four times worse than the loss reported by the company in the same period last year, and comes because of the fall in the sale of flats and the costs of financing a loan which Reyal took on to pay for Urbis when it took over the company in 2006.

Movistar is to be the single private mobile phone operator in Ecuador following a decision of the authorities in Quito to not renew the contract for the competing operator, the Mexican company Porta. Apparently the Mexicans made a bid which was ‘an insult to intelligence’ for the Ecuador telecommunications authority.

And finally,

A new study in Spain has shown that middle aged men are those most likely to suffer credit card theft. The numbers are proportionally higher in Madrid and Cataluña where as those who live in Navarra and La Rioja take better care of their cards.
The study was carried out by the CPP company.