Soledad Fernández is getting ready to leave Spain’s Tax Agency as internal tensions mount over shifts in the institution’s leadership and the continuing turmoil surrounding the Zapatero case.
Spain’s Tax Agency is facing a major reshuffle in its leadership following the end of the income tax campaign. The agency’s director general, Soledad Fernández Doctor, will soon step down after four years at the helm of the body responsible for combating tax fraud.
The move also influences other top officials across the agency, as internal strain and differing versions persist regarding the real magnitude of the crisis. The Finance Ministry maintains that Fernández’s exit did not stem from an abrupt resignation but from a replacement request submitted months earlier and delayed until the close of the income tax campaign to prevent disrupting the agency during one of its peak periods.
However, this shift arrives at a particularly sensitive time for the Tax Agency, as the judge handling the Plus Ultra case recently gave the Finance Ministry the chance to join the proceedings as a possible aggrieved party regarding jewellery worth €1.3 million that the National Police recovered from the office of former Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero. The AEAT’s choice to participate or stay out of the case has turned into one of the main political flashpoints linked to the issue.
A few days ago, the judge in the Plus Ultra case invited the Finance Ministry to appear as a “potential injured party” over the jewellery seized by the National Police from Zapatero’s office. This is a key development because, according to the case’s framing, the Tax Agency would need to appear as an injured party for Zapatero to face prosecution over an alleged tax offence. According to the judge, the nature of the facts under investigation “reveals financial harm directly connected to state-owned revenue whose management falls under the responsibility of the Tax Agency.”
In addition, on June 30, the People’s Party registered an expansion of the work plan for the Senate investigation committee into the management of the State Industrial Holding Company, known as SEPI, over the bailout operations. The party specifically called Fernández to testify on July 13 to clarify the tax authority’s position. It would not be her first appearance before such a committee: on February 18, 2025, she testified before the Senate committee investigating the Koldo case.
Opposition parties and members of the public have connected Fernández’s exit with this issue and with the Senate committee investigating SEPI’s management, where the departing director general had been called to testify on July 13 to outline the tax authorities’ stance.
“Zapatero’s jewellery has led the former prime minister and the government into a dead end. With no explanations and no possible justifications, they are trying to buy time to cover everything up, even if that means putting pressure on our institutions. The judge offered the AEAT the chance to appear in this case as a ‘potential injured party’. Since then, one question has been echoing throughout the institution: Will the Finance Ministry take action against Zapatero, yes or no?” the People’s Party said last Tuesday.
Source: ABC and The Objective.
