Amsterdam & Partners LLP has read with concern the statement issued on 25 May 2026 by the Association of Senior State Tax Inspectors (IHE) of Spain, in which this group presents itself as a sort of aggrieved party in the face of public criticism. It is worth stating this quite clearly: predators are not victims. A civil service body endowed with excessive powers — search warrants, seizures, penalties and adjustments with an immediate financial impact on families, professionals and businesses — cannot disguise itself as the weaker party when taxpayers and civil society point to proven malfunctions, excesses and abuses in its conduct.
It is particularly revealing that the statement sidesteps a public and well-known fact: an organisation that negotiates bonuses and pay supplements based, in part, on how much money its members can collect from taxpayers—whether correctly or incorrectly—is not in a position to engage in public criticism of those who oversee it, but rather faces collective responsibility for the tax assessments massively annulled through economic-administrative and judicial channels, for the penalty procedures criticised by the courts, and for the lack of transparency regarding internal revenue collection targets that determine the professional careers of its staff. A modern tax administration defends itself through transparency and accountability, not by dismissing the legitimate exercise of criticism in a social and democratic state governed by the rule of law as an ‘attack’. AMSTERDAM & PARTNERS LLP