The 2020-2023 Strategic Plan is a reflection by the Tax Agency on its commitments, priorities, lines of action and performance indicators.

As a central planning instrument, this Plan includes the main strategic lines followed by the Tax Agency in matters of assistance, prevention and control of tax and customs fraud.

The 2020-2023 Strategic Plan is structured as follows:

• Review of the national and international economic environment and the environment in which the Agency's activities will develop.

• Evaluation of the human and material resources necessary to develop the Plan.

• Participation of the Agency's cross-cutting Services.

• Analysis of the ethical infrastructure, including a commitment to the formal development of an ethical code addressed to all employees.

• Establishment of strategic objectives to be met within the framework of the Plan, including a set of strategic indicators to measure the evolution of the Agency in the medium term.

• Determination of the main axes of action for the period, which include assistance, prevention and control projects and measures.

• Impact of the Plan by taxpayer profiles and actions and procedures applied by the Agency.

• Alignment of the different planning instruments in such a way that they allow for consistent monitoring of operational objectives and prioritisation of the most relevant actions for the Agency.

In fulfilling the functions for which it was created, the Tax Agency must act with the utmost respect for a set of values that must be constantly observed, duly internalized and shared by those who make up the organization and, especially, by its management staff. These values include all those principles that form part of the ethical code contained in the Basic Statute of Public Employees and, in particular, the following values that must govern and govern its operation as an institution and that of all its members, forming the ethical infrastructure of the organization:

• Honesty and integrity.

• Objectivity and fairness.

• I respect.

• Transparency and reliability.

• Responsibility and efficiency.

• Continuous improvement.

The above description refers to the establishment of an extraordinarily broad plan, the setting of a multiplicity of specific objectives and the consolidation of a way of acting aligned with the standards of a modern public body, constantly adapted to the evolution of the society it serves and of which it is a part.

In this context, and as a natural (and essential) complement to the creation of this set of plans and objectives at the service of citizens, and typical of any public organization in our environment, there must also be a structure ad hoc which, in addition to collaborating in the generation of such planning, allows for continuous monitoring and evaluation of the activity carried out by the tax application bodies whose function is to implement such plans and achieve such objectives, anticipating, as far as possible, the detection of any type of risk of deviation from what constitutes the mission, vision and values of the organization.

The Internal Audit Service of the Tax Agency is essential in this structure. It includes the Inspectors of the Economic and Treasury Services who provide services to the Tax Agency and the teams they direct, whose function is developed in close collaboration with the central services of the organization and, with a relevant significance, with its territorial structure (Special Delegations of the Tax Agency).

The Internal Audit Service is responsible for supervising the internal control of all services of the Tax Agency, by carrying out audits of any type and nature and developing permanent control instruments that allow evaluating their effectiveness and efficiency and compliance with the rules and instructions, formulating proposals or recommendations that arise from said function.

Furthermore, it is responsible for monitoring compliance with the Tax Agency's objective plan and formulating proposals for its adaptation and compliance, as well as the prevention and detection of irregular conduct, the coordination, in the manner determined by the General Directorate of the Tax Agency, of the actions related to them and, where appropriate, their investigation, as well as the analysis and evaluation of the security systems and the internal control of the Tax Agency.

The Tax Agency is committed to assisting citizens in the exercise of their duties and obligations and to respecting their rights and freedoms. This commitment is, in fact, a legal imperative that the Internal Audit Service supervises.

All of the above allows us to affirm that the existence of an Internal Audit Service in the Tax Agency is configured as an additional guarantee for citizens, who can thus have the security and certainty that the supervision and control of the Tax Agency's actions is carried out in any case and regardless of whether the taxpayer himself formally requests it - using any of the mechanisms that the regulations make available to him.

Madrid, May 2022