The Secretary of State for Finance, Jesús Gascón, expressed this Thursday his support for the Treasury inspectors who have been "attacked and persecuted" in the face of the trend, increasingly widespread and especially among young people, of disaffection toward the payment of taxes.
At the opening of the XXXVI Congress of State Treasury Inspectors, which is taking place these days in Toledo, Gascón began his speech by conveying his condolences for those who died in the railway accident and, in particular, recalled the Treasury inspector Antonio Montero, who died in the disaster. "Antonio Montero was an excellent professional and a good person, a personal friend of mine," he lamented.
During his speech, the Secretary of State defended the work of the inspectors and warned that the growing lack of commitment to fiscal obligations complicates their daily work. "It is extremely complicated and unpleasant to manage when it affects you in a very direct way," he lamented, alluding to the pressures and criticism these professionals receive.
Gascón highlighted the relevance of the tax system for sustaining public services and called for Public Finance to be addressed with a "comprehensive vision". "Revenue policy and spending policy cannot be seen in isolation," he stressed, insisting on the need to ensure management based on quality, transparency, and evaluation both in revenue collection and in the use of resources.
Defense of a strengthened and seamless Tax Agency
In the absence of the Minister of Finance, Arcadi España, who was unable to attend the Congress of Inspectors because of the railway accident, Gascón read out his message to the group.
In relation to the territorial model and the inspectors' criticism of the "attempt to fragment the Tax Agency," he assured that the reform of regional financing does not contemplate "absolutely anything" about changes in management models, except for some financial adjustment linked to account payments.
"Our aspiration is to continue advancing in the collaboration and coordination between the autonomous and state tax administrations, strengthening the network of administrations that already hold managerial powers but always on the basis of the indispensable central role in the management model of the state agency and reinforced tax administration, never fragmented, as a guarantee of the necessary unity of action and criteria in the application of the tax system and of the prevention and fight against tax fraud", he has noted.
As for another of the issues that most concern the inspectors, the planned changes in the civil service examination system, the Ministry has stressed that any reform cannot imply a loss of the technical, legal, economic, and procedural specialization that is required of this elite corps.
Hacienda defends that the objective should be to shorten the deadlines of the selection process, from the announcement to taking office, without lowering the required training level. "I am aware that the agency is already working on it, streamlining internal procedures and the operation of the examining board and reducing the selective course from 12 to 9 months", Gascón explained.