The future of service stations will be based on multi-energy
The Secretary General of AEESCAM and AEVECAR, Víctor García Nebreda, highlighted, during the closing session of the conference "Current situation and future of Service Stations", the importance of analysing and knowing where the sector is heading, mainly made up of family businesses, as well as the new models and electronic invoicing. "The employers' associations must organise regular meetings of this type, because information is power, and we need it to make decisions".
García Nebreda highlighted the importance of the topics addressed and thanked Aseproda and Madic Group for their organisation and collaboration.
The first of the day's presentations was given by Guillermo de Mateo, general manager of Madic for Spain and Portugal, a French business group established in several European countries, which covers the industrial, services and digital areas.
"Our goal is to optimise and enhance the performance of customer spaces, with three areas of development: energy (such as electricity, hydrogen, etc.); management IT; and the customer journey", explained De Mateo, who gave as an example the digitalisation in France of Stellantis dealerships, eliminating paper, installing information screens and using virtual reality so that customers can try out new DS models without having to have the vehicles themselves.
New models
Regarding the new service station models, De Mateo explained that the sector has been very slow for years, but is now developing much faster: "Service stations will be multi-energy centres, we all agree on that. Each energy has its implementation period and traditional energy, fossil fuels, is not dead yet".
The head of Madic in Spain detailed the different models of service stations that are being installed, from the first individual, automatic service stations, which began in 2015, to automatic petrol stations linked to shopping centres, or the nano-station model, which has not yet been implemented in Spain, and which is promoted by town councils in sparsely populated areas.
He also highlighted new business models, such as the creation of a communication channel to attract customers, with screens on which advertisements and service information are broadcast, thereby increasing shop sales.
Electric mobility
Jorge Jiménez, head of marketing at Madic Iberia, explained that "electric mobility has been imposed by law and has to be incorporated into service stations. Despite this, only 1% of the 25 million vehicles in Spain are electric, although this is expected to increase to 10% by 2030". Jiménez explained the types of electric recharging: slow or recurrent (at home); opportunity (in a hotel, shopping centre or office); occasional or planned recharging (at service stations); and occasional unplanned recharging (at electric hubs located next to motorways).
In terms of service stations, pure electric vehicles are of most interest, because they need frequent recharging, which also needs to be fast or ultra-fast. With regard to the future, Jiménez concluded that "service stations will be multi-energy and multi-connected".
Billing
The next presentation, "The obligations derived from the Veri*Factu system" was given by Arturo Sánchez Carretero, from FIDE Tax & Legal, who explained the need to comply with electronic invoicing by law, although there are still parts of it to be implemented.
One of the obligations, he explained, is that "any company that deals with a self-employed person or other company must have electronic invoices", he said, and one of the best-known computer systems is Veri*Factu.
Sánchez Carretero highlighted the principles that all computerised invoicing systems must follow, such as traceability, chained data that enable tracking, with the date on which each record is made; or integrity and inalterability, which means that once a record has been generated, it cannot be altered without the SIF being aware of it.
As for the ways of carrying out this invoicing register, he highlighted two: the base and Veri*Factu. In the former, he explained that the data is stored and when the Tax Agency requests it, it must be sent immediately; while in the latter, it is sent continuously, securely and correctly. "This system allows us to carry out invoice verification processes, which in the future will simplify and speed up tax filing procedures". He also spoke of the new features to be incorporated in the invoices, such as a QR code.
"It will be necessary to have a professional IT system," he said.
For his part, Antonio Martín, CEO of Aseproda Informática, a company specialising in computer systems for service stations with more than 600 installations in Spain, gave a talk on "The implications for software and its users of the new legal requirements Veri*Factu and Electronic Invoicing".
Martín, who emphasised that Spaniards make an enormous effort to comply with regulations, focused on the two laws that will most affect software manufacturers, distributors and their users, which are the Anti-Fraud Law of November 2021, with the Veri*Factu Regulation and other obligations such as the integrity of fiscal data; and the Create and Grow Law of 2022 on electronic invoicing.
The speaker highlighted the need to adapt IT systems to comply with the requirements of the Law and the software manufacturer's obligation to make a responsible declaration. In this regard, he indicated that private companies have emerged that offer the service to guarantee compliance with the legal requirements.
He concluded by talking about the penalties that can be imposed on both the creator of the software and the users, with fines of between 50,000 and 150,000.
Both speakers agreed that the aim of the Administration is to control invoicing and "avoid the underground economy", said Arturo Sánchez.
Taxation of family businesses
Another of the topics addressed at this conference was the problems of family businesses, an analysis carried out by Manuel Lamela, managing partner of Acountax Madrid, who focused on the tax system and the succession process of this type of company.
Lamela emphasised that a family business does not mean that it is a small business, as there are large companies that are family businesses. As an interesting fact, he mentioned that only 10% of family businesses make it to the third generation and 1% to the fourth generation, "although it does not depend solely on profitability, but also on other factors".
The legal regime of the family business, he said, "is complicated", and the tax framework, the succession process, how it is passed on, how much it costs and how the succession is modified or changed, "is not easy either, mainly between the founder and the heirs". Lamela spoke of the four taxes to be taken into account: estate, inheritance, income and the transitional tax on large fortunes.
He also stressed the importance of tax planning and specialised tax advice for a transfer at the lowest possible cost or zero cost, a transfer that can be made during life, through donation; or after death through the Law of Succession. In the first option, Lamela pointed out that one advantage is that the founder controls and decides and designs the tax cost to suit him or herself or the family wealth structure, and, furthermore, the donor will have no capital gain as long as the recipient does not dispose of or sell the business to a third party for five or ten years.
Conflicts
Miguel Sánchez Iniesta, head of the Commercial Department of Acountax Madrid, spoke about how to prevent conflicts in family businesses, specifically service stations. The family company is subject to the same legal regime as other commercial companies, he said: "They are companies in which the vast majority of the share capital belongs to one or two families and the management bodies are mostly made up of the family group".
Sánchez Iniesta advocated the creation of family or partner agreements to avoid conflicts, in which internal rules are established for the operation of the company: appointments or dismissals, rules on political or economic rights of the company.
He also spoke of the family protocol as a form of shareholders' agreement and of the characteristics and purpose of this agreement, which is to "prevent corporate conflicts and provide a rapid solution to any conflicts that may arise, avoiding reputational problems for the company".
According to Sánchez Iniesta, this pact can be signed at any time and can be modified according to the needs of the family group, the partners or the company. He also recommended including a penalty clause, whereby if any partner fails to comply, he or she must compensate the rest of the partners.