Junta: 618,000 taxpayers locally should see bills fall after reform

The move, said the head of the Junta's provincial delegation in Malaga, Patricia Navarro, is designed to make it more attractive for companies to relocate to Andalucía, as the taxes paid by companies on their employees' salaries will fall. Andalucía is now only behind Madrid and Castilla y León in terms of Spanish regions with the lowest regional taxation.

Patricia Navarro also gave more details this week of the effects of the regional government's decision to virtually eliminate the need for direct family to pay tax on inheritance, which in Spain is levied on the beneficiary and not the dead person's estate. Inheritance tax on amounts up to one million euros will be reduced by 99 per cent.

Gifts between family members will also see the tax level brought down by the same amount. For example, a gift of 10,000 euros will now have just a 7.82-euro tax as opposed to 782 euros previously.