At Thursday's plenary session, the Municipal Council of Javea intends to adopt a modification in the tax rate, which will lower the Council Tax (IBI) and ease the burden to the taxpayer. The proposal of the Executive, which was endorsed unanimously by all the parties in the Finance Committee this week, will lower the rate from the current 0.657% to 0.617%.
According to the Councillor for Finance, Oscar Anton, this is the greatest reduction in the rate authorised by the Javea Town Council since the 2005 valuation came into effect. In addition to this reduction, payment facilities will be implemented next year, thanks to a new software tool that will allow the taxpayers to tailor-fit the payment of their municipal rates. In this regard, Anton pointed out that in addition to the 2.5% discount already applied to those who opt to pay their rates through direct debit, there will be additional discounts that have yet to be calculated, which will reward early payers.
The reduction in the tax rate will depend on the date on which the IBI payments began on the property. In overall numbers, 24,599 homeowners will pay less in 2012 than in 2011 and 12,546 will see an increase in their bill as a result of the progressive implementation of the 2005 valuation. However, this rise will be much lower than the one applied in previous years.
Conversely, if the same tax rate were maintained in 2012, 34,249 taxpayers would see a raise in their IBI bills, 629 would see no changes and only 2,267 would see a reduction.
In terms of revenue, the Town Hall coffers will receive 1.2 million fewer euros with this reduction. They expect to compensate this loss in revenue with the IBI collected from swimming pools, barbecues and other constructions that had not been paying, as well as from new houses. With these measures they expect to raise 579,000 euros more this year.
Anton defined the reduction in the tax rates as "ambitious" and added that it would have been greater if they did not have to meet inescapable commitments such as the interest on the purchase of the car parks, the return of 150,000 euros to the national government and the loss of revenues, for example from the now illegal 150,000 euro fee charged to telephone operators, or the 100,000 euros from the concessions in the Fontana Canal, now managed by the Conselleria.
Mayor José Chulvi added that the Town Hall must guarantee cash reserves that combined with budgetary restrictions, will allow for investments. In this regard, the Finance Department conducted a comprehensive study of the situation in order to set the highest rebate possible that would guarantee the current level of public services. "You can confide that we will administer the tax revenues well," the mayor guaranteed.
