Google News in Spain to close on December 16

Measure taken before a new intellectual property law is introduced on January 1

SPAIN -- Google will shut the service on 16 December before the law comes into effect in January, the firm said. The law allows Spanish publications to charge services like Google News if their content is shown on the site. But Google has argued against the ruling, saying that it makes no money from its search-based service"It's with real sadness that on 16 December we'll remove Spanish publishers from Google News, and close Google News in Spain," said Richard Gingras, head of Google News in a blog post on Wednesday.

PA: San Roque has the highest Council taxes but gets no services

Council car tax, one of the lowest in the province

San Roque

SAN ROQUE -- On studying the Report on Local Taxes issued annually by the Confederation of Cádiz Businesses (CEC, Confederación de Empresarios de Cádiz), the Partido Andalucista (PA) says it once more reveals the deficiencies in the government of Mayor Juan Carlos Ruiz Boix regarding one the heaviest taxes paid by the town's citizens: the IBI (Impuesto de Bienes Inmuebles), or Council Tax. San Roque pays the second highest taxes in the province. "Not only do we pay more, but there are sections with high taxes that get no or very few municipal services," says a spokesperson. The answer from the town hall is that the luxury of Sotogrande and Alcaidesa makes them demand the second highest taxes in Cádiz.

Tax v Wages, comparatives world wide

Are the 'blue' countries real tax havens?

WORLD -- Just before you decide to pack your bags and head for another country -- maybe those in light blue on the maps -- perhaps thinking that these are real tax havens (nicely put in Spanish: 'fiscal paradises'), you should know that the minimum wages in many of those countries are well below the line when taxes must be paid. One example is Brazil, where the average salary is €6,969.91 per annum, just below the €7,046.85 when you start paying. This phenomenon is especially prevalent in countries where large parts of the population have very low incomes. If you want to know how the data was collected and used to create the maps, go to Movehub. In the meantime, we have more of their maps below (in all cases, you can click to enlarge).

Spain loses billions on tax evasion and errors

MADRID -- According to Brussels in a study published last week by the European Commission, Spain lost €12,400 million (that's over 12 billion!) in IVA (VAT) income -- a full 18% of what the national coffers should have received. This is caused mainly by tax evasion, but also by company bankruptcies, statistical errors and tax avoidance. Nevertheless, the difference is nearly 4% lower than last year. The EU in total, did not ingress some €177 billion through fraud or simply unrecovered. This is 16% of the income it had forecast.//Since 2012, the countries registering lower VAT loss levels were The Netherlands (at 5%), Finland (5%) and Luxembourg (6%). The biggest gaps between projected income and the reality were registered in Romania (44%), Slovakia (39%) and Lithuania (36%). Among the EU's largest members, the VAT gap: Germany (10%), France (15%) Italy (33%) and the UK (10%). The European Commission is presently working on a 'basic reform' of the VAT system to give it "more solidity and efficiency and to reduce its vulnerability against fraud," according to Algirdas Semeta, the Commissioner for Fiscal matters.

How could the new capital gains tax law affect you?

MADRID -- A new capital gains tax comes into effect on January 1, 2015. Not every property seller is impacted, though. According to Fuster & Associates, the government is eliminating two coefficients when calculating the tax due on a property sale. It does mean, however, that some vendors will see a large increase in the amount of capital gains they are liable for. There are three tax groups that will be exempted from paying, however: