Buying a flat is a decision made after doing numbers and more numbers and weighing multiple variables. Among them, the money the buyer will have to disburse when the operation materializes, which makes more than one person worry.

It always passes quickly and from one day to the next, like a flower that never summer and a tree that doesn't let you see the forest, but the state Treasury has once again made public this week the official list of major tax defaulters in the Kingdom of Spain. Eleven hundred and eleven individuals and four thousand seven hundred companies have in common that they owe more than 600,000 euros to the public coffers – and no, they are not precarious migrants in search of life, work, and future. They are few who owe a lot, for a total outstanding amount that rises to 15,364,000,000 euros. I haven't heard any statement from Foment del Treball regarding persistent fiscal absenteeism, but I stare magnetically at the figure, almost dazzled, absorbed in the eleven digits. Trying to think how this fortune, euro by euro, would translate into strengthening so many strained public services – schools, hospitals, or support for SMEs. However, it is all a mirage and a simulation. Because another figure, the real one, reminds us that the publication of the list is in vain. The other number leaves me roasted on the way to fried: Treasury inspectors report that, from the fiscal year 2025, only 220 million have been recovered. 1.4% of the total. A fiscal hell – for all of us – that doesn't even cover a drop in the ocean. Saying this this week, when the vast majority have noticed in their current accounts how public taxation went through the cash register – whether to return or to pay – serves to remind us that for a long time, we haven't all truly been with the Treasury. In smaller magnitudes, the nascent Tax Agency of Catalonia has made the same list public these days: 60 debtors with an outstanding amount of 184 million, headed by an unknown who owes 65 million. And one is left pondering the doubt of how on earth a debt of 65 million accumulates without anything happening before.I take for granted that the list's case studies are multiple –many stem from bankruptcies and creditor proceedings–, but beyond the nosiness for names and the haggling over some economies, in the altarpiece there are too many usual suspects, flagship companies of the real estate bubble and a few studio characters. The crucial issue is that non-payment is only one of the faces of a structural tax fraud –elusion, evasion, shell companies, false double residency, bonuses for large companies or investment funds– which amounts to 60,000 million euros annually. Wide-eyed people are turning again, trying to ground the hefty sum in an increasingly unequal and striking social reality. The unshakeable feeling that it's all one after another makes a hole. A black hole through which so many things escape.

The Treasury last year settled a total of 547 million euros from individuals "with large assets", which represents a 4.4% increase compared to the previous year. To these actions through the different territorial delegations of the State Tax Administration Agency (AEAT), with 1,329 inspections – a 5.1% increase compared to 2024 – are added those of the Central Unit for the Coordination of Relevant Assets to detect, for example, false residencies. In fact, last year 68 million euros were settled from 145 taxpayers "artificially located in other countries" who actually reside in Spain and must pay taxes there.

41% of the Spanish population contributes more through taxes and fees than it receives in benefits. The proportion rises to 68% between the ages of 25 and 64, the active stage of citizens, and falls below 10% at the extremes of the life cycle, childhood and old age, which maintains a growing trend. The issue is that formulas must be devised to distribute the costs of population aging "in a more predictable and equitable way between generations" to "prevent them from being transferred in a less visible way to future generations through higher levels of debt," according to a study by the economic policy center EsadeEcPol. One of the solutions they propose consists of increasing the proportion of the working population aged 55 to 64, which is below the European average, and which contributes the most in social security contributions and taxes.

Yosef Faradji continues to be the most indebted taxpayer with the Generalitat. This person, of whom further details are unknown, already headed the list of individuals and legal entities that have debts with the Catalan public coffers last year. The amount owed has gone from 52.3 million euros a year ago to 65.2 million now as a consequence of accumulating interest. The main debtor among companies also does not change, bingo PlayBadalona, with 8.3 million, which has reduced its burden in the last year by one million euros.

The singer and presenter Bertín Osborne and the tonadillera Isabel Pantoja remains among the taxpayers who appear on the list of debtors with the Tax Agency, to which they were already last year. The debt of the first has decreased in this period from 865,601.41 euros to 835,287.38; and that of the second has risen from 1,009,253 to 1,273,872.59 euros. Television personalities Patricia Conde, with 714,615.12 euros, and Kiko Matamoros, with 600,740.64, have re-entered the list from which they had left.

The President of the United States, Donald Trump, is once again wielding trade policy to attack countries that go against his interests. The tycoon threatened the European Union this Friday with a 100% tariff on all products exported to the US from any country that applies a tax on digital services to American companies that operate there. In a post on his social network, Truth Social, Trump stated that "there are already some European countries that are close" to implementing such a tax, and he hopes to dissuade them with a new trade barrier.

With the arrival of the summer months comes the payment reminderof the new Catalan tax on CO₂ emissions, a tax that will affect more than one and a half million drivers in the country and which for now only applies in Catalonia. This tax, which is expected to raise more than 145 million this fiscal year, is added to a long list of direct and indirect taxes that drivers have to face to use their vehicle, expenses that must be added to the significant capital investment in the purchase process and subsequent vehicle maintenance, which we will analyze individually below.

Elon Musk is the first person with a fortune of one trillion (with a t) dollars, equivalent to all the wealth generated by a prosperous country like Switzerland in a year or, as Oxfam states,, as all that 3.8 billion people have, 46% of the world's poorest population. The stock market launch of SpaceX, a company owned by the magnate that will benefit from the privatization of the aerospace business, is born with a record valuation.

A record summer is expected both in Barcelona and throughout Catalonia. Given this scenario, it is difficult to understand why the tourist tax has not increased even more. Since April 1st, up to 12 euros per person per night are paid in the city of Barcelona, depending on the type of establishment. What often goes unnoticed is that part of this collection has a specific destination: 25% is transferred to the Generalitat for housing policies and the remaining 75% is allocated to the Fund for the Promotion of Tourism.The reality is that the tourist tax is inelastic. It is difficult to imagine a visitor stopping coming to Barcelona due to a moderate increase in the price per night, especially in the case of high-end establishments. Meanwhile, the city faces a growing deficit in services, infrastructure, and public space maintenance. Giving up this revenue stream is, in essence, equivalent to wasting necessary resources.It is true that it can also be argued that the tax affects local tourism and residents also suffer the consequences. But precisely for this reason the system should be reformulated: establish bonuses or reductions for residents in Catalonia and orient the tax towards a fairer redistribution of the costs generated by tourist activity. However, the debate cannot end with the amount collected. The central question is what is done with this money. If citizens perceive that the tourist tax serves to strengthen public transport, expand the affordable housing stock, improve cleaning, or reduce pressure on the most saturated neighborhoods, social consensus will be much broader. The problem arises when the collection is diluted without a visible return or a clear strategy. Who knew what their funds were intended for?

In August, holidays. The Spanish Federation of Professional Associations of Tax Technicians and Tax Advisors (Fettaf) has asked the Ministry of Finance to declare this "month an inoperative period for tax and administrative deadlines". This organization, made up of 12 associations from across the country, has written to the ministry, but also to the Secretary of State for Finance and to the different parliamentary groups in the Congress of Deputies, to request several matters. These include, in addition to requesting a break in August, also adjusting the IRPF tariff to inflation (indexation) – which has only been approved on two occasions in the last 20 years – or extending the objection period from 10 to 25 days.

Fighting the material poverty of so many people is a moral imperative of human solidarity. Even, for the sad argument of selfishness, we will reach the conclusion that it is much better for everyone to live in a cohesive society than in one divided between a few rich people and a lot of poor people.

The housing crisis and the rising cost of both rentals and purchases have cast doubt on a significant part of the taxation of real estate companies due to the low level of taxes they pay compared to other sectors of the economy. One of the targets of criticism for this low taxation are SOCIMIs, publicly traded real estate investment companies.

Few surprises. Josep Sánchez Llibre has collected 300 endorsements out of the minimum 50, representing about 1,800 votes, two-thirds of those from the general assembly. This will allow him to lead a third term at the head of Foment del Treball, until 2030. The elections, which were supposed to be in July, have been moved forward to May 18,, the day on which the fact of there being no other candidacy means he can be proclaimed president by the general assembly. One of the main objectives of the new term will be to combat labor absenteeism, with the commitment to prepare a white paper with proposals involving all economic and social agents. Another of the priorities will be to reduce tax pressure, he explained during an event at the Reial Cercle Artístic de Barcelona, with the attendance of more than 60 businessmen and executives who support him. The period for submitting candidacies ended this Friday.

The European Commission has a new diagnosis on taxation that points to the highest incomes and large fortunes. According to a study published by the Community executive, over the last thirty years there has been a concentration of wealth in the most affluent segments of the population in the European Union, making it necessary to rethink the taxes levied on wealth, inheritance, and capital income in the EU to reverse this trend.

If the predictions had been correct, since 2022 there would not be a single millionaire left in Norway. In 2021, the Labour Party (centre-left) of the current prime minister, Jonas Gahr Store, won the parliamentary elections and entered into a coalition government with the Centre Party. The new executive approved a reform of the formuesskatt, the wealth tax, which increased what the country's richest taxpayers pay.

Spain was one of the seven countries of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD, the think tank of the world's most developed economies) where last year the rise in taxes on wages far outstripped the increase in salaries, resulting in a loss of real income. The calculation, however, does not take into account the value of the public services citizens receive, which are funded by taxes.

For a few days now, the opposition's offensive has consisted of talking about the existence of a fiscal hell. The PP, which insists on the need to lower taxes, has recently been using the concept frequently. And it is an expression that the president of Foment del Treball, Josep Sánchez Llibre, who will run again for a third term in the elections he has called for May 18, made known during the presentation of the Green Paper on taxation in Catalonia in 2024. He himself considers it "apt" and says it is currently enduring.

Fiscal hell is a concept that has been gaining ground on the right of parliamentary arcs. It was popularized by the president of Foment del Treball, Josep Sánchez Llibre, and has now been adopted as their own by parties ranging from the PP to Junts, including the far-right Vox and Aliança Catalana. It doesn't take much imagination to conclude that it is a frontal criticism of the current tax model in both Catalonia and the State. Now it is the turn of Carles Puigdemont's party, which in this week's plenary session in the Parlament has obsessively proposed to attack the taxation maintained by the Generalitat with a double initiative: to deflate personal income tax (IRPF) (to eliminate inflation from the Government's revenue) and to subsidize the inheritance and gift tax. Junts knows it will lose the vote (it will probably only have the PP, Vox, and Aliança on its side), but it intends for it to be the start of a cultural battle against the left.

In Canberra, the rumor is that this year's budget –which must be presented in May– is the most important of the century. Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has gone in three months from boasting about banning social media for under-16s to giving a televised speech about an economic shock that “will be with us for months.” The war of the United States and Israel against Iran has caused, according to Goldman & Sachs, “the largest energy supply disruption in history.” “We have seen the destruction of gas wells in Qatar and Iran,” emphasizes Tony Wood, Energy researcher at the Grattan Institute, “if the conflict stops tomorrow, it will still take a long time for this infrastructure to be repaired.