La consideración del IAE como un “canon” a los efectos de las directivas sobre comunicaciones electrónicas

Résumé

The Spanish Supreme Court has interpreted in its judgment of July 14h, 2022 that article 13 of Directive 2002/20/EC opposes item 761.2 of the first section of the rates of the Tax on Economic Activities, insofar as it is considered a ‘fee’ in the terms established in the aforementioned precept, and insofar as it is levied on mobile telephone operators, proceeding to displace national legislation without submitting a preliminary question to the Court of Justice of the European Union. This is a controversial interpretation of extraordinary quantitative and qualitative importance, which will have to be ratified or rectified by the Spanish Supreme Court, reasons that are sufficient to justify a detailed analysis such as the one intended in this paper.