Spain's Treasury offers embassy posts to tax inspectors threatening to quit

Spain's Tax Agency places inspectors threatening to resign in embassies

The Spanish Finance Ministry, according to a report by El Debate, has launched an internal containment operation: offering embassy postings to senior officials at the Tax Agency (Agencia Tributaria) who want to resign over pressure from the government. The outgoing director, Soledad Fernández Doctor, had been announcing her departure for months. Now Jesús Gascón, Spain's Secretary of State for Finance, is finalising the reshuffle so that no one leaves without a reward.

The context is explosive. The Tax Agency has been criticised for its passivity in two corruption cases implicating the PSOE, Spain's ruling Socialist Party: the one involving Zapatero's jewellery and the fictitious tax residence of Pedro Sánchez's brother in Portugal. Under siege, the agency's leadership is opting for the back door.

How much will they earn at the embassies?

According to figures circulating, inspectors posted abroad could pocket up to 25,000 euros a month, tripling their current salary. A surplus that is hard to justify: the agency's staff know that these posts are, in the words of one witness, "a chance to steal at will and far from home". The opacity of salaries at consulates and embassies is proverbial.

An attempt to silence criticism

The move smells of institutional bribery. Those who denounce internal pressure are pushed aside and, in the process, further scandals are kept from erupting. But the manoeuvre carries a political cost: the image of a Tax Agency that rewards resignation with golden postings while corruption in the government's circle goes unpunished.