Spanish Government To Aid Small Businesses

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Spanish Government To Aid Small Businesses

Friday, March 05, 2010

As part of a package of measures designed to address the effects of the economic crisis on the country’s economy, the Spanish government has revealed that it will be offering loans to hard-hit small businesses and self-employed workers.

Speaking recently in the Spanish media, Finance Minister, Elena Salgado revealed that the government plans to discuss the proposals with all parties in parliament with a view to gaining overall agreement to implement the initiatives by May of this year.

The facility to provide loans of up to EUR200,000 for SMEs and self-employed individuals, through the Official Credit Institute (ICO) aims to help businesses having problems financing their operations during the current lean economic times.

Other components of the package include increasing tax deductions for certain tech companies from 8% to 12%, and maintaining a lower VAT rate of 8% for work carried out on housing restoration (and putting in place a parallel personal income tax reduction for those undertaking the work). It is estimated that these aspects of the package will go some way towards creating in the region of 350,000 jobs in the construction sector.

Spain’s construction bubble well and truly burst when the affects of the global recession started to bite in 2007 and there are thousands of unfinished homes and construction projects in the country, especially in the popular ‘Costas’, where large numbers of expats reside.