The Canary Islands.- The Canary Islands Special Zone (ZEC) is one of the tools of the Economic and Fiscal Regime (REF), created to promote the social and economic development of the Islands and to diversify their productive structure.
promote the social and economic development of the Islands and to diversify their productive structure. Over the years, this low tax zone with the most attractive taxation in Europe has become one of the most effective economic policy instruments for attracting business investment in the international sphere in strategic sectors.
The efficiency of this incentive is based on some issues such as:
– For every €1 million of public investment in the Canary Islands, the ZEC triples the efficiency in respect to other incentives.
-ZEC companies are larger, pay better salaries and invest more than the regional average.
-The average size of the workforce of ZEC companies is 3.4 times higher than that of Canary Islands companies.
-The average salary of ZEC companies is 16% higher than the average for SMEs of the Canary Islands.
-In 2016 ZEC companies invested 1.35% of the total amount invested in the Archipelago, 4 times more than the average for the Canary Islands.
Source: CanariasZEC 2018 Report