Análisis de los incentivos fiscales en favor de las fundaciones ibéricas para el cumplimiento de los objetivos de desarrollo sostenible

Abstract

In 2015, the United Nations issued the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, which includes seventeen Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The implementation of the SDGs aims to promote equal opportunity and economic empowerment by helping countries and their populations to promote sustainable development. The SDGs focus not only on international cooperation, but also on the elimination of discrimination and inequality within countries. In this sense, we can state that there is currently a general perception (with which we agree) that the scope of the SDGs does not only depend on governments but must involve the whole of society and its actors. In this context, the role of the social and solidarity economy (SSE) in the implementation of the SDGs can be questioned. Moreover, it can be affirmed that foundations, as actors of this economy, play an important role in the achievement of the SDGs. Indeed, foundations have a very important function for the communities in which they are located, since among their objectives is to articulate resources with different national and foreign entities, in order to promote social and economic development, as well as a greater social balance, contributing to the reduction of asymmetries. Regarding the importance of fiscal policies in achieving the sustainability challenge, in the last two decades, there has been an interest in the field of fiscal policy to stimulate economic growth, diversify economies and reduce the level of poverty. This economic growth and the fiscal reforms that have taken place, including improved tax collection systems, have allowed revenues to grow in Gross Domestic Product (GDP), creating budgetary space to begin to address a wider range of policy objectives beyond that of macroeconomic stability. In the context of legitimate tax planning, the tax legislator offers a set of advantageous solutions for foundations, either by placing them in the field of non-taxation or by fully or partially exempting them from certain taxes. Based on the evidence described above, we must ask about the relationship between the role of tax policies and the contribution of foundations to the SDGs, as well as about the existence of sufficient tax incentives in Spain and Portugal to encourage foundations' commitment to sustainability and whether such benefits contribute to the achievement of the SDGs. As a sign that this is an issue that has gained interest in recent times, the X Spanish-Portuguese Foundations Meeting was held in Mérida, Spain, in February 2019, whose main theme was "Foundations and the SDGs: synergies and opportunities in the face of common challenges" and which has motivated and served as a starting point for this work. The choice of these two countries is not random and is justified for different reasons. The first is the existence of cultural, social, and economic similarities between the two countries. Secondly, it is worth highlighting the importance of the third sector in both economies: although the weight of the third sector in the economy as a whole is different in each country - 3 percent of Gross Value Added (GVA) in Portugal and 1.45 percent of GDP in Spain - both countries have seen a growth in the importance of foundations in recent years, a trend that will continue to increase as a result of the worsening social problems caused by the COVID-19. Thirdly, there is previous evidence of the link between Iberian foundations. Fourthly, we believe that it is essential to make some proposals for the future, pointing out what kind of tax benefits could be implemented in order to increase the commitment of Iberian foundations to the SDGs. Considering the above, our intention is none other than to highlight the importance of incorporating, within the public policies of Portugal and Spain, a more sustainable model, to which fiscal instruments can undoubtedly contribute. The work has been developed taking into account the research carried out on the extra-fiscal function of taxes, focusing specifically on the use of tax benefits to encourage the transition towards a more sustainable model. At the methodological level, once we have analysed the legal-tax regime of Iberian foundations, we have focused on verifying the relationship between the tax benefits observed and the SDGs, trying to identify each tax measure with a specific goal of the 2030 Agenda. At the same time, we must highlight the link between the SDGs and the so-called circular economy, in which the value of resources remains as long as possible, extending the life cycle or products. In this way, we analyse how circular economy’s development could promote the compliance of the SDGs and vice versa, specially focusing on tax- point of view. Although the Spanish and Portuguese situation are not the same, we can affirm that both tax systems are not oriented towards the promotion of a circular economy and the development of the SDGs, so we aim to highlight the current situation and contribute to the debate on the design of tax policies that favour the promotion of sustainability by foundations. Having made these considerations, in order to make explicit the assumptions from which we start and some of the basic problems to which we intend to respond, the paper is structured in four sections. Firstly, it will analyse the state of the art of sustainable development from the perspective of taxation and how public policies can be an ideal tool for promoting the SDGs and social transformation. It will then address the regulation of existing tax incentives in consumption and income taxation, both for individuals and legal entities, as a means for the achievement of sustainability by foundations in Portugal and Spain, with the aim of pointing out the opportunities to increase commitment to the SDGs, through tax savings, in Iberian foundations. Once this study of the regime applicable to foundations has been carried out, a critical assessment of the current instruments will be made and proposals for the future will be made. There is no doubt that, in a context of economic and health crisis such as the current one, our regulations must be adapted to economic and social objectives, exercising a function that goes beyond mere tax collection.