The Costa Blanca town of Benidorm is losing over 1 million euros a year in tax rebates because for some absurd reason it is not classified as a tourist resort.
The current legislation only recognises a town as a tourist resort if at least 50% of the dwellings in the town are second homes, if there are at least 20,000 inhabitants and the town isn´t a provincial capital.Benidorm it appears meets all of these criteria.
The town meets the criteria but still is unable to claim back the permitted 2% of the tax brought in fromtobacco and fuel sales.There could be changes to the article 125 of the law governing local taxes and if these go through then it will make it even more difficult for Benidorm to be seen as a resort.
The Partido Popular want one of the criteria to be that the number of overnight stays should be the same or higher than the number of registered inhabitants and the number of hotel spaces should be higher.If such ammendments were made to the law then Benidorm would qualify.
