The latest Fiscal Barometer from the Institute for Fiscal Studies, published in June 2025, revealed that, despite the fact that in our society the idea that the Public Treasury plays a fundamental role in its maintenance is consolidated, with stable support over time of no less than 80%, 22% of the population believes that life would be better without taxes. This data is worrying, especially since the youngest segment of the population, aged 18 to 24, shows the greatest disaffection with the public sector, with almost a third of this group agreeing with that statement.

It is everyone's job, and in particular the Tax Agency's, as the entity responsible for the effective application of the state tax and customs system, to promote and reinforce the idea of ​​the importance of the public good and that everyone's contribution is necessary for our society as a whole to move forward, in contrast to the opinions of those who advocate for greater individualism, denying the need to contribute to the common good.

Along these lines, the Tax Agency has been developing the Civic-Tax Education Program since 2003. Given the perception indicated in several studies that the lack of education and civic awareness was one of the causes of tax fraud, the Program emerged to transmit to the younger members of society values ​​and attitudes favorable to fiscal responsibility and opposed to fraudulent behavior, without intending so much to provide academic content as civic content: to explain the need for all of us, as members of the society in which we live, to have a duty to participate in building the community, for which our contribution to it through taxes is necessary. In broad terms, the aim is to explain the difference between individual and collective needs in our welfare state, the existence of taxes to meet these common needs, the main taxes, the role of the Tax Agency and other tax administrations in collecting them, and what tax fraud entails.

Since its inception, the Civic-Tax Education Program has aimed to generate greater tax awareness among the children and young people it targets, based on the conviction that, since the fundamental values ​​that shape personality are acquired at the earliest ages, it is at these times that the basic ideas that make us a society should be reinforced: justice, equality, solidarity. In recent years, the Program has also expanded to the university setting.

The Civic-Tax Education Program seeks to promote knowledge of civic-tax values ​​through what is known as "vicarious learning" or "social learning," which involves learning through observation. The activities carried out, especially with the youngest, aim to help them learn and naturally experience the need to pay taxes and to collaborate in paying for public services together; and in this way, counteract attitudes they may observe in other areas that are contrary to these values. All of this is done through sessions in schools and universities, where the trainers, volunteer staff of the Tax Agency who combine their usual tasks in the other areas of action with their participation in the Program, present the content of the Program seeking the active participation of the students through activities, games and questions. Open days are also held, in which schoolchildren or university students go to the territorial offices of the Tax Agency, where they receive this training, and learn about the tax administration "from the inside". Finally, this program includes a National Competition, in which students who have received this training in talks or workshops can participate and which allows them to express, in a creative way, their perception of the need for all of society to contribute to the common good.

The Tax Agency cannot reach the entire school population, so the collaboration of teachers who have constant contact with children and young people is essential. Therefore, the aim is also to publicize this content in faculties of education and teacher training centers, which will allow the message to be conveyed to expand exponentially.

The Tax Agency's electronic headquarters also allows access to the basic contents of the Program: Through presentations, teaching guides and other materials, the aim is to reach more recipients.

In short, the Tax Agency considers it one of its tasks to try to convey to young people the need to contribute through taxes to the development of our society. Everyone's contribution is essential to moving forward as a country, and making this known and accepted as a natural fact by those who will be the adults of tomorrow will encourage better voluntary compliance with tax obligations in the near future, a basic objective of the institution.