The Tax Agency's Strategic Plan 2020-2023 dedicates its Chapter V to the Ethical Infrastructure and Governance, in which a series of commitments are articulated that help the Tax Agency to continue acting with the utmost respect for a set of articulated ethical values and principles, whose observance goes beyond the legal protection offered by the set of administrative regulations that govern the situation and relationship between the Tax Administration, citizens and personnel in the service of the public service.

In the development of the Strategic Plan, the first of the measures adopted was an Institutional Declaration made on February 24, 2020, through which the Permanent Steering Committee of the Tax Agency, among other issues, undertook to promote the development and approval of a code of principles and conduct applied to the peculiarities and specific activity of the Agency and the creation of an Ethics Advisory Commission.

The Resolution of June 17, 2021, of the Presidency of the State Tax Administration Agency creates the Ethics Advisory Commission, with an advisory and consultative nature in matters of ethical infrastructure and corporate conduct and integrity. Its functions include acting as a consultative and advisory body to the Permanent Steering Committee of the Tax Agency, recommending guidelines, policies and procedures to ensure compliance with the principles and standards of conduct of the code, alerting to potential reputational risks, answering queries made by bodies of the Tax Agency and assisting the Tax Agency in cooperation projects and activities in the knowledge and dissemination of corporate ethical culture.

In the development of the functions conferred upon it by its constitutive regulations, the Ethics Advisory Committee has prepared a draft code of ethics for the Tax Agency, which has been approved by Resolution of the Presidency of the AEAT of December 22, 2022.

The code of ethics for the Tax Agency is not an absolute novelty, since the Basic Statute of Public Employees already regulates a series of ethical principles and standards of conduct that are generally applicable to all public employees, although the approved code of ethics is adapted to the conduct, behavior, actions and dilemmas that constitute the specificity of the Tax Agency, integrating and adapting to its organizational and functional characteristics.  

In its preparation, other ethical codes in force in the most advanced tax administrations have been taken into consideration, also taking especially into account the Recommendation of the Council of the OECD on Public Integrity, which agree on the need that public servants adjust their actions, among others, to the principles of observance of the Constitution and the laws, integrity, good management and responsibility, centrality of citizens, and loyalty to the institution and the people.

Each of the principles and values reflected in the ethical code is set out in different rules of conduct, with the Advisory Committee being responsible for issuing the appropriate opinions and recommendations and the Internal Audit Service of the Tax Agency being responsible for supervising their effective compliance.

By approving this code of ethics, the Tax Agency expresses its commitment to citizens and its service to the general interest by referencing the ethical behavior of its staff to the principles and standards of conduct set forth therein.

In the following link you can consult the Resolution approving the Code of Ethics .