The importance of Fiscal Deposits Many businessmen in the hydrocarbons or alcoholic beverages sector are unaware of the existence or importance of fiscal deposits.
What is a fiscal deposit of hydrocarbons or alcoholic beverages?
In order not to complicate the matter too much, we would say that it could be equated in part to what in the customs field would be a free zone.
In other words, a fiscal warehouse is a facility within which the taxes levied on hydrocarbons or alcoholic beverages are not accrued, that is, VAT and special taxes that fall on hydrocarbons and alcoholic beverages.
Therefore, within the fiscal deposit (whether hydrocarbons or alcoholic beverages) it is bought and sold without VAT and without Excise Taxes.
What does it mean for companies?
What a tax deposit of hydrocarbons or alcoholic beverages means for companies is a greater financial capacity, since they can purchase the same amounts of product that they used to purchase but at a lower price since it is purchased without taxes or purchased for the same amount that purchased more product for the same reason stated.
It should not be forgotten that the tax deposit can supply service stations (gas stations), gas centers, agricultural cooperatives and final consumers, both gasoline, diesel, or subsidized diesel.
It must not be forgotten that the taxpayer of the Special Tax on hydrocarbons or alcoholic beverages is the owner of the tax warehouse, so he will always be responsible for paying the Special Tax that occurs upon leaving the tax warehouse.
Why, in turn, is the fiscal deposit of hydrocarbons or alcoholic beverages important?
A fiscal deposit of hydrocarbons or alcoholic beverages is important due to the storage capacity it allows.
Consider that CLH (today EXOLUM), the largest tax warehouse in Spain, applies a policy in which it leaves out of its facilities all those who are not Oil Operators. In this way, anyone who has a product purchased, for example, in the EEC or outside the EEC and is not an oil operator, finds it very difficult to store that product in Spain (unless they have a tax warehouse or can rent tankage in a tax deposit other than CLH).
From our point of view, tax deposits are even interesting as a Business Plan. It is a good business idea to create a network of tax warehouses that are in competition with other tax warehouses and that make it possible to provide tankage capacity to those players in the sector who cannot have such capacity in warehouses such as CLH because they are not oil operators.
Many gas centers are unaware that they have, or may have, the capacity to be fiscal deposits of hydrocarbons and enjoy the advantages of the suspensive regime, the greater financing capacity and be able to continue selling to gas stations, gas centers, cooperatives and final consumers.
We can say that, currently, the processing of a fiscal deposit of hydrocarbons can take up to 6 months, while that of a fiscal deposit of alcoholic beverages could take 2-3 months.
For our part, we have helped to create multiple tax warehouses, both for hydrocarbons and alcoholic beverages, from its initial phase. We have also participated in the transformation of gas centers to fiscal deposits.
Carlos Babot
Experto en impuestos especiales sobre los hidrocarburos
07/03/2023
