The return of La Caixa, good news if the Generalitat ends up collecting all the taxes

BarcelonaIn the early 2000s, La Caixa was a financial institution with a portfolio of industrial holdings and which carried out important social work with its profits. More than two decades later – and with a major financial crisis in the middle that meant the end of the savings bank model – the scheme has changed. La Caixa is a foundation that carries out a great deal of social work and has multiple banking and industrial holdings that, with their dividends, feed the budget of this foundation.

Between the two figures is CriteriaCaixa. A company that was born as a listed company that held a large part of La Caixa's shares. But after the financial crisis, Criteria became a company 100% owned by the La Caixa Foundation, which holds the portfolio of shares, including that of CaixaBank, the current financial institution. But, apart from the political significance of the return of the head office, what real importance does it have?

For tax purposes, practically nothing. The main tax paid by the entities is the corporate tax, which is not transferred to the communities and, therefore, will continue to be paid to the state tax agency. Tax-wise, "no implication", say sources from CriteriaCaixa. But it could change if the Government agrees with the State on individual financing and Catalonia collects all the taxes, which is said to hold the key to the box.

The academic director of the master's degree in finance and banking at UPF-BSM, Xavier Brun, explains to ARA that if Catalonia collected all the taxes as requested by the Generalitat, it would also collect corporate taxes and, therefore, even if it had to pay a portion to the State after collecting everything in addition, there would be more companies.

This expert also points out that there could be a second consequence. Collecting taxes "would make it easier to borrow on the markets, because creditors would have the guarantee of income to lend the money." This is now much more difficult, so the issuer of debt is the Kingdom of Spain, which has the majority of the income via taxes.

However, the economic impact is another matter: we are talking about one of the most important foundations in the world, with a budget of 655 million euros for this year, and a portfolio of shares that totals almost 30,000 million euros in value. In addition, Criteria not only maintains these shares as a pure financial partner, but in many of them it has a clear weight in the management of the companies.

In fact, in the statement in which the La Caixa Foundation and CriteriaCaixa explained the return of the headquarters, they already indicated that, on an operational level, having left first and returning now has had little impact. "The change does not imply a movement of people or corporate spaces or services, given that most of the employees and work centers have always been located in Barcelona," the statement says verbatim.

Another matter is the impact on a journalistic level. The so-called flight of companies has filled pages of newspapers. Going to the last financial year, in 2024, Catalonia recorded a negative balance of 371 companies, that is, more companies left than arrived. Just the opposite of Madrid, which recorded a positive balance of 266 companies, according to data from the company Informa. But when the turnover of the companies that arrive and leave is added and subtracted, Catalonia had a positive balance of 1,866 million euros, that is, despite losing companies it gained turnover; while Madrid had a negative balance of 3,486 million euros.

The source of income

CriteriaCaixa is the main source of financing for the La Caixa Foundation, which is the sole owner of the holding company. Criteria has not yet presented its 2024 results, but it closed the first half of last year with a profit of 1.27 billion euros, 77% more than in the same period of 2023. The profits are explained by the contribution of its subsidiaries, which soared to 1.

Specifically, CriteriaCaixa received €904 million from CaixaBank, €104 million from Naturgy and €43 million from Telefónica. La Caixa's investment arm then said it expected to "far exceed" €1.6 billion in dividends by the end of 2024.