More changes on cards at tax office as political rift is revealed

Spain’s Tax Agency (AEAT) is going through one of the most turbulent periods in its history. A raft of resignations and dismissals has followed on the heels of the agency’s controversial handling of various issues, such as Princess Cristina’s ID mix-up, the Nóos case involving her husband Iñaki Urdangarin, the fiscal amnesty for former Popular Party (PP) treasurer Luis Bárcenas and the appeal of a multi-million-euro fine by cement giant Cemex.

The internal rift was made worse last week with the resignation of Luis Jones, head of AEAT’s financial inspection department. This opened the door for the new director general, Santiago Menéndez, to launch a major management overhaul with approval from Finance Minister Cristóbal Montoro. Hanging over these internal changes is the suspicion that it amounts to a political purge, especially after Montoro himself told Congress on Friday that the managers who resigned were all Socialists.

Agency sources said there will be further changes in the near future. So far, four agency workers have been fired — special delegates in Galicia, Cantabria and Castilla y León as well as the planning and institutional relations chief — while Jones stepped down. There were three other resignations before that in connection with the Cemex case, in which an inspector was dismissed after she had thrown out an appeal by the cement giant’s Spanish subsidiary against a 450-million-euro fine.

But sources also said that all the changes were part of the normal process of having a new director general. Former AEAT director Beatriz Viana stepped down in June because of the controversy over false ID numbers attributed to Princess Cristina in connection with the investigation into her husband’s wrongdoing at the Nóos Institute.

In any case, Jones’ resignation — the most talked about as he held the third-most powerful position at the agency — has triggered a wave of rumors blaming the changes on everything from an internal power struggle among agency groups to a political purge aimed at increasing government control of the AEAT.