The acting Ombudsman of Spain, Francisco Fernández Marugán, has claimed a political, socio-economic agreement “as consensual as possible”, that allows to getting over the crisis generated by the covid-19 pandemic, and which contributes to helping “an increase of social response and political tension”.
He manifested it accordingly in the closing of some virtual meetings organised by the Spanish Federation of Professional Associations of Technical Tributaries and Fiscal Assessors.
The Ombudsman has signaled that the economic scenario will continue to be “shadowed and full of incertitudes”, at the same time as the sanitary emergency is not solved, and has warned that inequality and poverty come along with this disease that “is trascending the health sphere”.
“The COVID-19 has fully impacted the economy, houses, and government accounts, he has assured, as it has also turned Spain into one of the countries most affected by the crisis.
To Francisco Fernández Marugán, the pandemic “has exposed unemployment, the low quality of employment, the low salaries underneath economic growth and the poverty provoked by the lack of an accessible house that exists in many of the neighbourhoods of our big cities”. Because of it, he believes that it is necessary to “define a global strategy in which all the levels within our reach need to be used”.
Nevertheless, in face of what was done by the European Union during the financial crisis of 2010, Fernández Marugán has positively evaluated that the priority order applied by communitarian authorities has been the following: “the people first, then the companies, and finally the financial system”.
If the actions were others, the Ombudsman believes, “we would witness a sharp increase of poverty at the European Union, as well as to the deepening of the división of the developed societies that have access to protection, and those who remain at the inclemency”.
Taxation-related complaints
Fernández Marugán has also pointed out the taxation-related complaints that reach the Institution, and has given optimistic value regarding citizens not questioning the taxing architecture of the State overall.
As he has affirmed, what they are doing is to “Pose their partial disagreements with some relevant matters of the taxing model”, and criticising organisational problems, as well as discrepancies of criterion between administrations.
Amongst the complaints received, the Ombudsman has underlined those concerning the territorial differences of the inheritance tax, and those created due to the Municipal Added Value Tax (increase in Value of Urban Land), which is in a situation of vagueness because of the absence of a reform that was partially declared to be unconstitutional some years ago.
Fernández Marugán has also referred to the complaints that arrived during the lockdown by some professionals and fiscal assessors who claimed that, in that situation, they would not be able to deal with the deadlines of the presentation of quarterly declarations of the VAT and PIT for companies (SME) and self-employed workers belonging to the first quarter of 2020. Regarding this issue, the Institution “achieved a certain margin of time”, as Fernández Marugán states, who nonetheless also recognised that “we did not have the same success we did when we asked a similar petition regarding the IRPF and the Patrimony 2019 campaign”.
In this context, he has emphasized that the institution continues working on guaranteeing the rights of contributors.
