The Government of Pedro Sánchez admits that in its conversations with Esquerra Republicana de Cataluña (ERC) the possibility of creating a tax consortium between the State and the Generalitat that would be responsible for collecting 100% of the taxes in this community is on the table.
This is what government sources say, stressing that this power, to collect all of Catalonia’s taxes, is included in the Statute. In this sense, Moncloa and also Ferraz insist that the proposal that the socialists will make to ERC to support the investiture of the leader of the PSC, Salvador Illa, involves developing what is already included in the Statute of Autonomy.
Negotiations are underway and are being led by the PSC, which has so far not announced “any progress or setbacks” regarding an agreement with the Republicans that could open the doors of the Government to Illa.
However, they acknowledge that the negotiation of this tax consortium is on the table – a proposal that Illa had already launched during the electoral campaign for the Catalan elections on 12M – and that this measure could mean the collection of 100% of the taxes, although the details and the percentage of taxes that it would assume have not been specified.
The Statute includes the creation of the consortium
Specifically, Article 204 of the Statute, dedicated to the Tax Agency of Catalonia, states that “the management, collection, liquidation and inspection” of the State taxes collected in Catalonia “will be the responsibility of the State Tax Administration, without prejudice to the delegation that the Generalitat may receive from it, and the collaboration that may be established especially when the nature of the tax so requires.”
“In order to implement the provisions of the preceding paragraph, a Consortium or equivalent entity shall be established within two years, in which the State Tax Administration Agency and the Tax Agency of Catalonia shall participate equally. The Consortium may be transformed into the Tax Administration in Catalonia,” the regional law states.
The Catalan Tax Agency already exists and, in fact, the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, has expressed his willingness to develop it, as he indicated at the end of 2023 in Barcelona, where he went to meet with the then President of the Generalitat, Pere Aragonès (ERC).
Sánchez, willing to develop the Catalan Treasury
After that meeting, when asked if he would be willing to develop the Catalan Tax Agency, the head of the Executive did not close the door and said that “it is something that is in the Statute of Autonomy” and is “to be developed”. “How it materialises is a different matter”, he added.
So far, the Government has maintained that it is seeking an “imaginative formula” for financing Catalonia that can meet the expectations of ERC, which remains at its peak and continues to demand fiscal sovereignty and the collection and management of 100% of taxes.
This would mean leaving the common regime of the autonomous communities and moving towards a system of agreement and quota, like the one in the Basque Country and Navarre, which collect all taxes and then pay a portion to the State; an unacceptable option for Sánchez’s Executive, which considers it to be a red line, as it has defended in recent weeks.
Source: www.eldiario.es
