Division among Treasury officials over the transfer to the Catalan Tax Agency
Inspectors oppose the possibility, while tax experts believe it would be feasible, as was done in the case of the Mossos d'Esquadra.
BarcelonaThe unique financing is the core of the agreement between the PSC and ERC to appoint Salvador Illa as president of the Generalitat. It entails a long and complex process, and a key element is the civil servants who will have to fund the Catalan Treasury. However, Isla assured in an interview in the ARA This weekend, it was announced that Spanish Tax Agency workers in Catalonia could be transitioning to Catalan-style working, in a process that could be equivalent to what happened between the Civil Guard and Mossos d'Esquadra: "It's an option that was followed at the time, which I believe responds to a common-sense approach, to offer those who want to join the force the opportunity to do so." This is a key step towards assuming a role in tax management in 2028, but it is generating division within the Treasury's civil service, as this newspaper has been able to verify.
For now, it has already been accepted that the Catalan Treasury will continue to operate in the Catalan capital. will not intervene in the management of personal income tax until 2028, although the investiture pact between the PSC and ERC stipulated that it would begin in 2026. One of the reasons for this is the lack of muscle of the Catalan Tax Agency, which currently only has about 800 employees. One option for this is to recruit staff from the Spanish Treasury who are already in Catalonia. According to data consulted from the Spanish Tax Agency's delegation in Catalonia, there are approximately 4,678 civil servants in Catalonia, where inspectors—an elite of the highest category, A1—account for 445 of the total, while technicians, A2, account for 1,604, and tax agents, in group C1, account for approximately 1. In this sense, not all potentially affected staff are equally interested in a possible transfer to the Catalan Treasury. While the inspectors - grouped in the Association of State Tax Inspectors (IHE) - openly declare war, speaking of "firm rejection", this is not the case of the Treasury technicians, who are open to the measure, opting for voluntariness, as explained by the general secretary of the Gestha technicians union, José María Mollinedo, in a conversation with AHORA. "It could be similar to the transfer of the Civil Guard to the Mossos d'Esquadra, or the Cercanías," he states.
The representative of the technicians maintains that "there are many transfers that come under the jurisdiction of the Generalitat; there is a lot of experience in Catalonia and in all the autonomous communities." However, he has not received "any information from the Treasury or at the state level," and his association's opinion is based on the documents signed between the Generalitat and the State, last week's commitment, or Isla's words at the ARA (Argentine National Assembly). Therefore, Mollinedo associates the rejection expressed by another sector "with the political polarization derived from the Process and the antagonism between Madrid and Catalonia," but that as technicians they are open. "We understand that transfers should be voluntary for those who want to, after negotiation," he concludes. In his opinion, "other transfers of services do not generate this tension," and he lists a list since the Constitution was approved. An example is the collection of personal income tax, also during the government of José María Aznar.
Specifically, he argues that a good number of professionals may be interested in moving to the Catalan Treasury: "Tax technicians would be the easiest to transfer to the Generalitat," he emphasizes. The reason is that their Catalan counterparts, tax technicians, climb to level A1, which offers them mobility and salary progression that the State lacks. Tax agents in the Spanish Treasury, below the technicians, would remain in subgroup C1 and would have the same conditions. Regarding these two groups, the most numerous, Mollinedo points out that among technicians in the Principality, at least 20% may be rooted in the Principality, a figure that is exceeded in the case of agents. On the other hand, those without roots who want to return to their place of origin are the most difficult, along with tax inspectors—those who have been most opposed: "They wouldn't want to because the remuneration to the State is much higher." Being able to earn up to €150,000 a year with fifteen or twenty years of experience is a tempting prospect, he says.
According to the Catalan Tax Agency's master plan, presented last week by the Generalitat (Catalan Government), it is anticipated, without specifying how they would be obtained, that there will be 400 additional agents for the Catalan Treasury next year, and 700 agents by 2027. What does the ministry say? Sources consulted emphasize that they still have no information about this possible transfer because nothing has been approved yet and it is not included in the Generalitat's calendars or documents. "Nothing new," they conclude, with a horizon of 2028 that seems very far away.
Furious opposition
Unlike the tax experts, the Association of State Tax Inspectors (IHE) is outraged and has issued several statements in recent days, to which it refers when questioned by ARA. "We will be very attentive to how this nonsense is intended to be carried out," it asserts, adding that it expresses its "firm rejection and deep concern about a possible transfer of civil servants from the state agency to the Catalan agency without their consent." It even calls on the Minister of Finance, María Jesús Montero, to "publicly commit to ensuring that no type of general or forced transfer will take place."
In its case, it strongly opposes a transfer like that of the Mossos d'Esquadra and charges against "an attack on the fiscal cohesion of the State that will lead to a fragmentation of the Tax Agency in an irresponsible exercise of breaking up the single treasury." To the point of asserting, in light of the mid-July agreement reached in the Bilateral Commission between the Generalitat and the State, that "what would make common sense is not to give in to the demands of the independence movement." They view the Tax Agency as one of the fundamental pillars of the Spanish tax system and any transfer as "a frontal attack."
