The City Council begins to apply the largest IBI reduction in the history of the city to registered residents.

Nearly 38,000 real estate tax bills receive an average 20% rebate

The City Council of Estepona has begun to apply the largest reduction of the Real Estate Tax (IBI) to the registered residents of the municipality. The last receipt issued this August already presents the reduction approved by the Consistory, which reaches an average of 20% and benefits about 38,000 receipts.

Once the City Council has paid off the total debt of 304 million euros inherited by the current local Executive from previous governments, resources can be used to apply the largest tax reduction in the history of the city, which has already begun to materialize in the IBI. This reduction, according to the data of the Municipal Intervention, has been applied to a total of 37,988 receipts of registered residents. The savings for all households amounts to 6.1 million euros.

With this measure, the IBI reaches in the city an accumulated drop since 2011 of 50% thanks to the initiatives that have been carried out in these years. This policy of reductions in the tax burden contrasts with that followed by previous governments, which came to apply the largest increase in IBI in the history of the city, as derived from the revision of cadastral values made in 2008 by the PSOE and IU, which even caused the protests of neighbors who decided to take to the streets in demonstrations.

According to the mayor, José María García Urbano, the City Council is studying new reductions in the tax burden that continue to benefit citizens. On the other hand, the City Council has requested the Provincial Board of Collection to extend the period of voluntary payment of IBI until September 30 in order to facilitate this management to taxpayers.

Another of the novelties that the Consistory is applying in fiscal matters is the reduction of 3% in the garbage rate for citizens who make a minimum of three contributions of garbage in the clean point of the city. This is waste for which there are no special containers distributed on public roads, i.e., electrical and computer equipment, furniture, oils, light bulbs, X-rays, or clothing, among others.

It is important to note that this reduction in the receipt must be requested by the user to the Provincial Collection Board during the first quarter of 2026, by submitting an application, the receipt of the garbage fee for the previous year, and providing proof of each delivery that will be provided on each visit to the Punto Limpio.

The Estepona Town Hall has already been applying tax benefits in the garbage tax to neighbors in vulnerable situations, long-term unemployed and retired people.

A consequence of reaching zero debt

The mayor of Estepona, José María García Urbano, has pointed out that this significant drop in taxes has been possible as soon as order has been put in the municipal accounts and has managed to pay the debt of 304 million euros that was inherited from previous corporations.

In this regard, he recalled that the City Council of Estepona was at the head of the most indebted municipalities in Spain, with a debt of 4,600 euros per inhabitant. García Urbano recalled that when he arrived at the Consistory the situation was bankrupt. Public employees had to bring toilet paper from home because the supplier companies stopped serving because they were not being paid. Even the gas stations of the municipality hung posters informing that they did not serve fuel to the fleet of municipal vehicles because of the debts they maintained. This situation forced the local police for a time not to use patrol cars.

On the other hand, the mayor explained that savings and responsibility in spending have been decisive in the economic management necessary for the repayment of this debt, with a multitude of measures that have contributed to the elimination of superfluous spending or waste of public resources. He has also stressed the relevance of the elimination in 2011 of municipal companies, which had become "instruments to circumvent transparency, control and administrative law governing the functioning of local government, being uncontrolled spending tools of predecessor governments". In this regard, he has indicated that, in these 14 years, "all economic and municipal management is audited and controlled with the guarantees of the bodies of Intervention, Treasury and Secretariat.

In relation to the payment of the inherited debt, it is important to highlight the work developed by the current municipal government team of the PP: all unaccounted invoices have been eliminated, the so-called 'invoices in the drawers' (33 million euros); the totality of the inherited debt with the Junta de Andalucía for the improper or unjustified use of subsidies granted to the previous socialist government has been paid (6 million euros); the debt with the General Treasury of the Social Security (60 million Euros) and with the Tax Agency (18 million Euros) has been paid; as well as the more than 90 million Euros of the Payment Plan to Suppliers that had to be implemented, among other concepts.