The Administrative and Tax Court of Funchal decided this Wednesday, January 25th, in favor of the Municipality of Santa Cruz, which since 2014 requires the payment of IMI – Municipal Property Tax at Madeira Cristiano Ronaldo International Airport.
The news advanced by the newspaper Nacional Expresso reports that the court condemns the Madeiran executive to register the Madeira Airport in the matrix as an urban building and obliges the concessionaire, Vinci, to pay IMI.
The court decision sets a precedent in Portugal for charging IMI for public infrastructures granted to private parties.
Filipe Sousa, mayor of Santa Cruz who nine years ago started the action against the Madeiran executive, tells Expresso that the City Council should receive revenue of more than 500 thousand euros per year, in a total of millions of euros. The Regional Government will certainly have to appeal the court’s decision.