A famous American entrepreneur recently expressed his intention to set up a factory in outer space. The comparatively lower gravity offers advantages in certain industrial processes and outer space offers possibilities for the assembly of spacecraft and satellites which, due to their mass, could not be launched from Earth.<\/p>\n
This emerging economic activity raises a host of legal issues. As a general principle, space matters are basically regulated by international treaties promoted by the UN, which aim to prevent the appropriation of outer space by states or individuals.<\/p>\n
In particular, the Treaty on Principles Governing the Activities of States in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space, including the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies (General Assembly resolution 2222 (XXI)), in force since 10 October 1967, should be highlighted.<\/p>\n
The first question to delimit is whether a spacecraft in space should be recognised as national territory, as in the case of ships, according to its flag. But ships, as space objects, do not have a flag. Their nationality, for liability and other legal purposes, is determined by the state of launch or the state of the launcher, but they are not themselves part of the national territory.<\/p>\n
The lack of definition of certain spatial legal aspects diminishes when dealing with the fiscal aspects, which are always much more concrete.<\/p>\n
Let us imagine for a moment that the spatial object in which the industrial process now under discussion takes place is operated by a Spanish company. To the extent that the activities are recognised in the books of that company, the income derived therefrom will be subject to corporate income tax. Such income does not escape the tax authorities.<\/p>\n
At the same time, if the operation is carried out from a foreign company, we should analyse the circumstances of the company, such as activities carried out, business structure and tax liability, in order to determine whether the foreign income must be reported to the Spanish company. That is, the space economic activity will be taxed in the country of residence of the operator of the space object and, if this is not the case, the income would be taxed in Spain by application of various anti-abuse rules such as international tax transparency or others.<\/p>\n
From the perspective of indirect taxation and to the extent that the industrial activities take place outside the VAT (Value Added Tax) territory, their taxation under this tax will be deferred to the time when the manufactured products enter the VAT territory, if ever. The goods will be deemed to be imported and will be subject to VAT and customs duties.<\/p>\n
If, on the other hand, the goods produced in space never enter the VAT territory, no VAT will be due.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A famous American entrepreneur recently expressed his intention to set up a factory in outer space. The comparatively lower gravity offers advantages in certain industrial processes and outer space offers possibilities for the assembly of spacecraft and satellites which, due to their mass, could not be launched from Earth. This emerging economic activity raises a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":41393,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","site-sidebar-layout":"no-sidebar","site-content-layout":"page-builder","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"disabled","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"set","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[1888],"tags":[3128,3129,3041,3130,3131],"servicio-asociado":[3043],"class_list":["post-50094","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-article-en","tag-derechoaeronauticoyespacial-en","tag-aeroespacial-en","tag-espacio-en","tag-fiscalidad-en","tag-fiscalidad-internacional-en","servicio-asociado-espacio-en-2"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n