Ceuta, Spain's tax agency and the failed state the crisis exposes

Ceuta exposes a state that only works to collect taxes

The migration crisis in Ceuta has peine an uncomfortable debate: the Spanish state, which prides itself on being one of the most decentralised in southern Europe, was left without an answer to a sudden wave of migration pressure. While images of people arriving at the autonomous city went around the world, an uncomfortable truth slipped into the debate: the only thing still running with Swiss precision is the tax agency. The argument keeps coming up in economic analysis: the self-employed, small businesses and salaried workers pay up, and the treasury collects. The rest of the state, they say, is asleep at the wheel.

The tax office as the only public service

The complaint is not new, but it takes on another dimension when the tax agency's performance is compared with that of other departments. While Hacienda (Spain's tax authority) goes after the self-employed and small businesses, taxpayers watch floods, wildfires and volcanic eruptions overwhelm the state. Some argue that tax collection has become the only apparatus that never fails, and that it bears down on the productive classes, including wealthy property owners.

The British mirror

The comparison with the United Kingdom hangs over the debate: there, unemployment hovers around 3%, with average salaries of 3,000 to 5,000 euros a month. Protests against illegal immigration are a daily occurrence in Liverpool and Newcastle, a sign that civil society is mobilising. In Spain, the migration problem is managed in silence, with no similar protests.

This time, the figure that really stings is another one: despite the collapse in trust in institutions, tax revenue keeps breaking records. The failed state, it seems, works very well when it comes to collecting.