The following is a partial translation of a news article published in ABC:
Residents of Madrid woke up this Friday to a new and eye-catching billboard carrying a blunt message directed at Hacienda: “It’s Not Worth It.”
The message is signed by the international law firm Amsterdam & Partners, which has offices in London and Washington, D.C., and is led by lawyers Christopher Wales and Robert Amsterdam. Both are also behind the Fiscal Pickpockets campaign and argue that the Tax Agency incentivises the “aggressive persecution of taxpayers”.
Alongside the main slogan, the firm states that it intends to put an end to “the bonus system and the requirement to ‘pay before you can appeal’.” The billboard also features the title of the lawyers’ new book, Hacienda and the Dual State, published on 3 June and currently being promoted by its authors.
The billboard is also intended as a form of protest. As the campaign explains on social media, the “millions” of people who pass through this location every day “will not be able to ignore what is happening inside the Tax Agency”. The book, they say, “examines in depth the many problems and deficiencies of the Spanish tax system and proposes an urgent and compelling programme of reforms for public debate.”