VAT (sales tax) in Spain goes up on 16 July!
 

The government has raised the taxes on hotels, restaurants and other goods and services begining Monday, 16 July, so be prepared to pay a little more for just about everything under the sun.

I guess it has to be done but at least the relatively weak euro will help holidaymakers from outside the eurozone. I was in Spain a couple of weeks ago and it did not seem as expensive as last year.

Spanish airport taxes also went up on July 1st. Mostly by a euro or two but in the case of Madrid and Barcelona they doubled - so rises of about €9 in each case.
The likes of Ryanair are making passengers who have already booked and paid for tickets pay the extra. Most legacy airlines aren't. they will only apply the rise to new bookings.

I am glad I booked my 10 tickets to La Palma before the tax increase!

Ryanair and most others. Not sure why Ryanair was singled out in a huge article here the other day.

Re.. IVA. Mor reason to be sure to claim it back when you leave on purchased items.

The date is unknown at present. The official notification given by the Government released in what is called the B.O.E. Boletín Oficial del Estado. The following article explains more.
http://www.lavozdegalicia.es/noticia...07G12P4991.htm The article says the BOE will be released this weekend and the actual date for increasing the IVA (VAT) could be as late as 1 August 2012.
Some items will not have taxes raised. Things like food.
IVA on Hotels will go up 2%
Things like trains - car hire will go up 3%

Still cheaper than Portugal where the highest rate is 23%

Link to the BOE. http://www.boe.es/diario_boe/

but Portugal minimum wage is 140E more/month than Spain's. We are the paupers of "developed" Europe right now. Pathetic. But our politicians are not. We have 6-8 times MORE politicians/ per capita than Germany. Even double Italy.

I don't see an easy solution to this. When announced in Valencia they are going to reduce the number of diputados( congressmen type positions)

"Hell no! We aren't being laid off".

I hope there is a protest organized soon so we, the taxpayer, can say "Oh hell, yes, you are"

I say get rid of them all and start all over.

Finished with my rant and I apologize for hijacking this reminder of future gouging to try to remedy what everyone else in power has done wrong across the globe.

The actual date is from 1st Sept 2012
http://www.lavozdegalicia.es/noticia...7421569539.htm

So Spain's economy is in trouble,banks,unemployment etc.
Let's get some extra euros from the tourists who are visiting us????????????????
Now there's a welcome for tourists!
I also read that Madrid is now going to let shops decide when they are open, 24/7 if that's what they choose to do!
Getting desperate!