The central government and the Generalitat government have taken a first step towards the singular financing of Catalonia. Both administrations have committed to working to deploy the Catalan treasury and to promote legislative changes so that the Catalan Tax Agency (ATC) progressively assumes powers in the management of personal income tax (IRPF), in a model that Catalonia defends must respect the principle of ordinality in the territorial distribution of resources by the State.
The proposal, compatible with a general reform of the financing system, contemplates that Catalonia can gradually collect more taxes. In the area of IRPF, the agreement foresees a network model for the management of the tax system in which the State Tax Administration Agency and the autonomous tax administrations, not only the Catalan one, participate.
The first steps in this direction are already being taken this year, as they have agreed to intensify the participation of the ATC in the 2025 income tax campaign. Looking ahead to 2026 and in the event that the legal framework is modified, the ATC will be able to verify the correct application of IRPF declarations in Catalonia, particularly the deductions approved by the Parliament.
The agreement moves from an expenditure-based model to a revenue-based oneThe agreement, sealed at the State-Generalitat Bilateral Commission meeting in Barcelona, represents "a very important paradigm shift regarding the current financing system",according to the Minister of the Presidency, Albert Dalmau.
"It is a new architecture for the financing of public services based on a relationship of co-responsibility, and we are moving from a model based on expenses to one based on income," Dalmau remarked after the meeting.
For the agreement to have tangible effects, the Cortes must come into play. In fact, the Minister of Territorial Policy, Ángel Víctor Torres, has conditioned the details of the singular financing model on the legislative modifications that Congress must approve. And not only that: a working group will be created with representatives from the Generalitat and the central government to concretize the proposal.
In this regard, Torres has assured that the central government will promote the necessary legislative changes, and that the Fiscal and Financial Policy Council will address the model proposal after the summer.