This Thursday ends the last extension of the bankruptcy moratoriumdecreed in March 2020 with the state of alarm and which exempted the companies with insolvency problems to apply for bankruptcy. Experts anticipate a barrage of bankruptciesalthough they will not be immediate because the term to make this declaration effective is two months. In other words, the obligation to present contests will be really effective from September 1.
“Companies have a margin there to avoid triggering processes that do not correspond to the real solvency situation & rdquor ;, said on Monday the first vice president and minister of Economic Affairs, Nadia Calvinoat the press conference after the Minister council. This time could also be used to reduce deadlines regarding the reform of the bankruptcy lawwhich will be approved this Thursday in the Congress of Deputies, but must still pass the Senate process.
According to the cooperative of lawyers Legal Networkonce the moratorium is over and those two months have passed, the fact that in Spain there are “close to 40,000 zombie companies in a situation of technical bankruptcy & rdquor ;, which suggests that “insolvency proceedings can be triggered & rdquor ;. During these two years without the obligation to file contests, there were companies that had no other option than to make this bankruptcy situation effective.
Specific, in 2021 bankruptcy proceedings grew by 37.5% compared to the previous year, while in 2020 the increase was 57% compared to 2019, according to data from the General Council of the Judiciary (CGPJ). According to him specialized firm RZS Lawyers, “it is very likely” that this 2022 Spain “quintuples the competitions prior to the real estate crisis & rdquor; until surpassing the record figure of 10,000 bankruptcy proceedings in 2013.
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The objective of this reform is to “facilitate pre-bankruptcy situations and establish a faster system to avoid the liquidation of companies & rdquor ;, explains the deputy dean of Registrars of Spain, Jose Miguel Tabares. “Although another question is what will be the text that is finally approved”. Between the amendments introduced in Congress highlights one that frees SMEs and freelancers whose companies have gone bankrupt of 20,000 euros (10,000 with the Treasury and another 10,000 with Social Security), according to El Periódico de España, a newspaper published by the Prensa Ibérica group.
The procedure will be as follows: for the first 5,000 euros of debt, the exemption will be in full; while for the rest it will reach 50%, up to the total maximum of those 10,000 euros. Thus, if a businessman or businesswoman goes bankrupt and the debt he has with the Treasury is 8,000 euros, he can get rid of 5,000 euros in the first instance and half of the other 3,000 remaining; in total: 6,500 euros exonerated. Or if after the bankruptcy, the debt with the Treasury is 12,000 euros, the exoneration may cover 5,000 euros and half of the remaining 7,000; altogether 8,500.