Spain’s six largest listed banks recorded 703 million euros under the country’s redesigned banking tax in the first half of 2026, equal to 3.5 percent of their combined profit, according to financial reports reviewed by Servimedia.
The six lenders are Santander, BBVA, CaixaBank, Sabadell, Bankinter and Unicaja. Bankinter was the only one not to pay, for the second consecutive year, citing deductions available under the Tax on Interest Margin and Commissions, known as the IMIC. The bank said in its financial report that its net tax quota for 2025 was zero after applying corporate tax deductions, and that on the same basis it had accrued nothing for the first half of 2026.
CaixaBank paid the most, recording 304 million euros, up from 296 million a year earlier. Chief executive Gonzalo Gortázar has called it the CaixaBank tax because the bank bears the largest share by far. CaixaBank partly offset the cost through 270 million euros of deferred tax assets, after determining their future recovery to be foreseeable.
Santander recorded 174 million, matching last year. BBVA logged 149 million against 150 million in 2025. Sabadell recorded 66 million, four million more than a year ago, and Unicaja recorded 10 million, unchanged.
The combined 703 million compares with 692 million in the same period of 2025. The big banks earned a combined 20,164 million euros in the first half of 2026, up 18 percent year on year, which reduced the tax to 3.5 percent of profit from 4.1 percent a year ago.
The IMIC was redesigned in late 2024 with progressive rates of between 1 and 7 percent on Spanish interest and commission income. This year will be its last unless the government extends it. Banking associations AEB and CECA have challenged the tax in court, as have individual banks. AEB president Alejandra Kindelán said the levy was arbitrary and stigmatized the sector.
