Spanish Port Fights EU Ruling of Tax Breaks as Illegal State Aid

Europe’s General Court should overturn a state aid decision that found certain tax advantages for ports to be illegal state aid, the Port Authority of Bilbao in Spain argued in papers published this week.

• In January 2019, the European Commission found Italy and Spain’s tax treatment of ports to be incompatible with EU state aid rules.
• Ports had been exempt from corporate tax in Italy and from corporate tax on some of their revenue in Spain. Spain agreed in 2019 to amend its taxation of ports to comply by abolishing the corporate tax exemption for ports.
• The Port Authority ...