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 preparing for a significant leadership overhaul now that the income tax campaign has concluded, as its director general, Soledad Fernández Doctor, is set to leave her post after four years guiding the institution charged with tackling 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, the change comes at an especially delicate moment for the Tax Agency. In recent days, the judge overseeing the Plus Ultra case offered the Finance Ministry the opportunity to appear in the proceedings as a potential injured party over jewellery seized by the National Police from the office of former Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, valued at €1.3 million. The AEAT’s decision on whether or not to join the case has become one of the main political flashpoints surrounding the matter.
A few days ago, the judge handling the Plus Ultra case asked the Finance Ministry to participate as a potential injured party in relation to the jewellery seized by the National Police from Zapatero’s office, signalling a key shift since the Tax Agency must be acknowledged as an injured party for Zapatero to face charges for an alleged tax offense, and the judge indicated that the facts under examination reveal financial harm directly linked to state-managed funds overseen by the Tax Agency.
On June 30, the People’s Party also filed an expanded version of the work plan for the Senate’s investigative committee reviewing how the State Industrial Holding Company, known as SEPI, managed the bailout procedures, and the party set July 13 as the date for Fernández to appear and outline the tax authority’s position; it would not be her first appearance before a committee of this kind, as she had already testified on February 18, 2025, before the Senate panel probing the Koldo case.
Opposition parties and various members of the public have linked Fernández’s departure to this matter and to the Senate committee reviewing SEPI’s management, where the outgoing director general had been scheduled to testify on July 13 to explain the tax authorities’ position.
“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.
