Rocío Albert (Madrid, 1971) has not even been at the head of the Ministry of Finance of the Community of Madrid for 100 days and faces a legal battle with the acting Government over the so-called Tax on Great Fortunes and the risk that the concessions to the independence movement have serious consequences for the Madrid economy. In her first interview after taking office, she assures that she will attend this Sunday the demonstration organized by the PP against amnesty, not only as a doctor in Economics and a graduate in Law, but "as a Spanish".

What do you think of the low collection data of the State Tax for Great Fortunes? Well, it is not a tax against large fortunes, it is a tax against Madrid. It is unfair, uneconomical and the only thing it seeks is to punish Madrid. 90% of the tax has been collected in Madrid, that is, 550 million. In addition, the total collection, of 623 million, has been much lower than the 1,500 million expected, as always happens with these taxes established quickly and quickly by the Government of the Nation. It is also a collection that represents 0.01% of total State expenditure. It's ridiculous. I do not believe that the Spanish accounts will change because of this tax. But how do you replicate the argument of the PSOE that you are forgiving money to large fortunes with your bonuses in the Wealth Tax? Very easy, because today the Community of Madrid is the one that collects the most both in taxes that we have ceded and in the large taxes. The data corroborates that every time it has been lowered, not only do we not collect less, but we collect more. It happens with the autonomous section of the IRPF and with taxes that we have ceded, such as the Wealth Tax and Inheritance and Donations.How is the legal battle of the Community against this so-called tax on the rich? The Constitutional Court was appealed to the Constitutional Court in due course, since it was a law, and we have lodged an appeal against the ministerial order with the Administrative Court. It is logical that if we appeal the law, we also appeal the order. And both appeals have been admitted for processing.What if he wins? Should the state return the money to those who have paid this tax? I am convinced that those who have paid it will recover the money and with interest. Let us hope that the Constitutional Court will be very neutral and that it will objectively study the breaches that have occurred in the procedure and the invasion of competences. Meanwhile, the Government's plan now is to maintain this tax 'sine die' What impact can prolonging it have for Madrid? What the central government is looking for is to eliminate that fiscal competition that we have between the communities and it is an absolute mistake. It is one more demonstration, by doing so indefinitely, that he wants to punish Madrid and, ultimately, the Spaniards, because Madrid is the economic engine of Spain. We have known the growth data in the second quarter of this year and we almost doubled the national average. I do not understand that they want to maintain the tax when they know that the only thing they are going to do is make the capital go, because there may be a second-round effect, of more and more affected taxpayers thinking about moving to other places where there is no tax. They would set up their companies there and that is income tax and VAT that is not collected from those taxpayers. And above all, they are companies that can change places, jobs that can be destroyed with all that this can mean for the economic growth of a region or a country.Can there be a march to the Basque Country, which is free of this state tax? I see more of a flight to Portugal, which is very close, or to any other EU country. The Basque Country does not meet the conditions of legal certainty and political certainty. In Madrid, businessmen and investors know that we have very clear rules and that, according to our budgetary capacity, we will continue to reduce taxes.mo year? The reduction and the whole panorama of new deductions included in the program of our president Isabel Díaz Ayuso is to implement them throughout the legislature. We have that deadline. At this time, the central government does not give us the data of deliveries on account of the financing system and that is 75% of the basis to build the Budget, so it is difficult and does not seem the most appropriate to put an additional reduction now for 2024 with this uncertainty. We are preparing a very prudent preliminary draft budget. The latest deficit figure for Madrid this year is 1,200 million... But in the second half of the year spending is contained. We will be close to meeting the deficit target of 0.3%. Both Esquerra and Puigdemont claim to end the so-called fiscal deficit. If Sánchez yields, it is 22,000 million a year, what consequences does it have for Madrid? This "fiscal deficit" is built by the independentistas with a methodology questioned by recognized and prestigious landowners who I do not think can be identified with being right and left. That fiscal deficit figure they give is not true. But is Madrid in a position to assume the economic price that Puigdemont puts to sustain the common box? Of course not. It would have to be assumed by the central government. If Catalonia is ceded and removed from net contributor to the system, it is impossible for Madrid to sustain the common fund for all of Spain. We would like to, but we cannot pull all of Spain alone while Catalonia spends and also seeks to be forgiven debt. We must put a limit to the whims of the independence movement. Madrid is the one that contributes the most to the common box by 70% and Catalonia, 23%, if they also lower that ... How to reform the financing system? The current one of 2009 benefits Catalonia. In the Community of Madrid we are clear that we must be supportive, but we are going to ask for a much more transparent and multilateral system, not bilateral with Catalonia. And we are going to ask that the criterion of ordinality be applied, in which of course we contribute, but as long as it is guaranteed that as a result of that contribution, we, who are the ones with the greatest fiscal capacity, do not remain in a situation in which we go from being the first in fiscal capacity to number 12. That is, they give us sufficient resources to finance our essential services.Does Madrid also have "historical debt" like Catalonia? We would never speak of historical debt. We are talking about solidarity and a more balanced distribution of regional funding, in accordance with the principles of ordinality, which is still solidarity. We were very unhappy with the distribution of these European funds for two fundamental reasons. The first, because we were not taken into account in what was really what I needed and it was done from an office, from above. And it was not taken into account when, in addition, the projects that each of the communities had said should be carried out had been requested. That created a situation of absolute discontent. In addition, in the distribution by communities we felt mistreated again because we corresponded either by population to 14% or by GDP by 19.4%. On average, we got 11%.Have you had any contact with the Ministry of Finance since your inauguration on June 26? Nothing. We are at an absolute impasse. Not even an even contactto provide, even if they are in operation, an approximate information of what we can receive from the system on account. Silence.

  • Personal Income Tax
  • Community of Madrid
  • GDP
  • CKD
  • Isabel Diaz Ayuso