The rich close more than 300 sicav for fear of losing their privileges

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• September 19th, 2017

Variable capital collective investment companies (the famous SICAVs) do not all have them. 

Most of the parliamentary forces are in favor of putting the means so that they do not continue being a tolerated mechanism of fiscal avoidance. 

And that has filled with concern those who use them , including many great fortunes, who fear losing their current advantages.

The consequence has been the closing of tens of silica; some have been merged, others have become mutual funds, some have transferred their assets to countries such as  Luxembourg or Switzerland  and some have proceeded directly to liquidation. 

So far this year, the total number of companies of this type has gone from 3,229 to 2,927, according to the latest data provided by the employers of the sector,  Inverco , for August.

Not only  has the number of companies declined , but  also the number of shareholders (almost 33,000)  and equity , which at the end of last month stood at 32,218 million, compared to 32,794 at the beginning of the year, with a decline close to 600 million.

The fact that 307 sicav (almost 10% of the total)  has been lost since January, is directly related to the political offensive  against an instrument launched in 1983, being Minister of Economy Miguel Boyer. 

Its main advantages are that it  allows to defer payment of taxes until the reimbursement of profits  and that shareholders  can freely manage the capital of the company,  without having to resort to an independent manager, as in the case of mutual funds.

In return,  SICAVs must have an initial capital equal to or greater than 2.4 million  and at least  100 shareholders,  since, at least on paper, they are collective investment vehicles. 

However,  in practice, the second of these two conditions is often mocked by the use of people caught for that purpose, men or women of straw known as  mariachis.

Thanks to this, promoters can do and undo at will, skipping the spirit that inspired these societies, in order to lighten their tax burden as much as possible. 

They have created their own sicavs, for example, the March family   (Newfoundland Investment, Bellver Portfolio),  Booty  (Real Estate Portfolio),  Del Pino(Chart Investments),  Polanco  (Rucandio), Alicia  Koplowitz (Morinvest) or  Sandra Ortega , daughter of founder of Inditex (Soandres de Activos).

The need to stop these abuses is an old demand for some leftist formations,  even favorable to ending SICAV once and for all, whose privileges were especially ominous during the long years of the crisis. 

Citizens,  without going so far, also included in its electoral program a normative change that avoided the current coladero and  got it accepted by the PP in the pact of investiture.

However, the Government has not yet moved a finger  to fulfill that commitment and has also turned a deaf ear to the non-legislative proposal passed for the same purpose in the Congress of Deputies. 

This proposal included, among other things, placing the minimum shareholding of SICAV shareholders at 0.55%, returning to the Treasury the control powers it had up to 2005 and raising taxation.

Now  SICAV benefits are taxed at 1%  instead of the nominal corporate tax rate (25%), which allows them to save a considerable amount of money. 

In 2016, the last financial year of which the National Securities Market Commission (CNMV) has provided data, SICAVs earned 948 million euros and only paid 8.5 million euros to the tax authorities