240,000 households will have to start paying the metropolitan tax in 2026.

BarcelonaHundreds of thousands of residents of the Barcelona metropolitan area will have to face a new tax starting in 2026. The plenary session of the Metropolitan Council of the AMB (Metropolitan Metropolitan Area) initially approved the tax ordinances this Tuesday, which will entail significant changes to the area's taxation. The most notable is the revision of the metropolitan tax to comply with the various rulings of the High Court of Justice of Catalonia (TSJC) that deny the AMB the ability to apply tax rebates and exemptions.

This means, for example, that the rebate that existed until now for properties used as primary residences and with a cadastral value below €49,213.77 will be eliminated. Thus, as announced The Newspaper And as ARA has been able to confirm, 240,000 households in the 36 municipalities of the metropolitan area will have to start paying the tax, which consists of a surcharge on the property tax of approximately 17 euros per year, payable in two semi-annual installments.

With the collection of this tax—the only one from the AMB that is not a final tax—the metropolitan authority finances aspects such as the maintenance of natural spaces like the Collserola mountain range, the Besòs and Llobregat rivers, beaches, and metropolitan parks. It also finances the conservation of Barcelona's ring roads and investments in public transport—metro and buses—to facilitate mobility throughout the area.

Another change implied by compliance with the TSJC rulings is that the AMB can no longer discriminate between the rate it charges individuals and what it charges commercial and economic activities. Thus, everyone will pay 0.045%. Until now, commercial and economic properties paid a surcharge of 0.2%. All of this means that the metropolitan authority expects to collect €93.78 million in 2026, about €40 million less than the previous year.

The waste tax increases by 3%.

To try to offset this loss of revenue, the AMB will adopt several measures. Among them is an increase in another metropolitan tax, the waste treatment tax. The initial approval of the tax ordinances this Tuesday contemplates a 3% increase in this tax, with which the entity expects to collect €171.5 million. Although it alone does not cover the costs of the waste treatment service—around €235 million—this amount represents an increase compared to the previous year's revenue.

This is because 18,000 economic and commercial activities will change rate brackets, as they were previously incorrectly classified due to lack of documentation. Similarly, tourist apartments will also pay more, because until now they were classified as residential uses and will now be considered an economic activity.