Mariano Rajoy says 2012 tax regularisation process "neither covers up nor writes off offences"

Lower House of Parliament, Madrid

In response to a question about tax evasion from the Member of Parliament for Izquierda Plural [Plural Left], Joan Coscubiela, the President of the Government stressed that the actions taken by the Spanish Tax Agency and the fight against fraud have enabled a total of 37.67 billion euros to be collected between 2012 and 2014. Furthermore, the first quarter of 2015 was the best ever for Spain in the fight against fraud, with 2.89 billion euros uncovered.

Mariano Rajoy highlighted the various measures adopted in this regard over the course of this legislature: Law 7/2012 on the prevention of and fight against tax fraud; the tax reform that came into effect in 2015; the General Tax Act that will be debated in Parliament shortly; the new agreement to be approved with Andorra; and the automatic tax information exchange system, among others.

The President of the Government said that tax regularisation processes have been undertaken in other EU countries and in Spain in 1984 and 1991. However, he explained that, unlike the last two occasions, the process approved in 2012 involved "payments from taxpayers, their names are known to the State Tax Agency, it neither covers up nor writes off offences, it has OECD guarantees, has led to the largest ever increase in the uncovering of tax bases and, therefore, we have created a fairer tax system".

Job creation, the main objective for this legislature

"The main inequality in the labour market is the gap between those who can work and those who cannot. Hence, the main objective for this legislature has been to combat unemployment", he said. This was the response given by the President of the Government to the Member of Parliament for Partido Socialista Obrero Español (PSOE) [Spanish Socialist Workers' Party], Pedro Sánchez, when he asked about the inequalities in the labour market.

Pool MoncloaMariano Rajoy reminded him that, when he came to power at the end of 2011, unemployment was rising at 9.6% per year, while it is now falling at 7.2% per year.

He stressed that, according to the data in the latest Labour Force Survey, permanent and full-time jobs are being created in Spain. He added that last year, for the first time since 2006, employment increased and unemployment decreased. Although the results are still absolutely insufficient, the data on March 2015 when compared with March 2014 show that 536,000 more Spaniards are now affiliated to the Social Security system.

Therefore, results are starting to be seen that "encourage us to continue working in the same direction", said the President of the Government.

Efforts to combat poverty

The President of the Government said that the main priority for the Government of Spain has been to combat the crisis and, as part of those efforts, to combat poverty, for which job creation is essential.

Pool MoncloaOne of the most important decisions taken by the Government of Spain was the National Social Inclusion Plan that, as Mariano Rajoy explained, has provided much larger amounts than those that would stem from the suggestion made by the Member of Parliament for Convergència i Unió (CiU) [Catalan Nationalist Party], Josep Sánchez Llibre, in his question (those stemming from voluntary tax regularisation processes).

Mariano Rajoy listed some of the measures adopted to combat poverty, such as the subsidies to local authorities for them to receive the amounts corresponding to agreements and transfers owed to them by the regional governments; the Fund against Child Poverty; the Food Payment Fund; the subsidies to social programmes taken from income tax; the financial help to families at risk of exclusion; and the extension of the Prepara Plan.

According to Eurostat data, inequality and poverty are starting to fall in Spain, said the President of the Government, which "is comforting to us all and encourages us to keep on working in the same direction".