“The challenges of the tax administration of Catalonia”, by Joan Iglesias Capellas

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Throughout the lengthy process of drafting and approving the Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia and negotiating the financing model of the autonomous communities under the ordinary tax regulations for the period 2009-2014 (now subjected to an uncertain review process), Catalan society and the government of the Generalitat must yet again trust the syllogism (promise) which claims that by attaining a greater degree of decision-making authority on public spending (education, health, security, social assistance, etc.) they would get a correlative increase in budgetary resources from the Spanish State in order to properly meet the needs of the citizenry of Catalonia. In other words, if the government of the Spanish State agreed to shift the competences to deal with the public services inherent to the welfare state to the Generalitat de Catalunya, the principle of institutional loyalty and fiscal co-responsibility would ensure that it would also provide Catalonia with the financing needed to ensure a level of care and provision of public goods equivalent to the fiscal effort made by Catalan society.

The challenges of the tax administration, by Joan Iglesias Capellas