The Minister of Economy, Alícia Romero, has announced that the Govern is analysing the elimination of up to 15 regional taxes, although changes to income tax are ruled out. The reform, conditioned by the investiture pact, aims to simplify the system without altering revenue.
The Generalitat of Catalonia has put forward a selective tax pruning. The Minister of Economy, Alícia Romero, has confirmed that her department is studying the abolition of up to 15 regional taxes, those taxes that the community created in the past and that now, in her words, "have ceased to make sense for which they were created." The reform, however, comes with a red line: income tax will not be touched.
Romero ruled out any modification of the main regional tax, both upwards and downwards. In an interview, the minister insisted that "it is not the Govern's intention to raise taxes, nor to lower them." The decision makes it clear that the reform will focus on minor taxes, whose revenue is residual but whose political burden is notable.
The analysis being carried out by Romero's team is, according to sources from the department, almost a survival audit. Each tax figure is examined to determine whether it still meets the objective for which it was created. Some, they admit, no longer have a reason to exist or cost more in management than they generate. There is no closed list, but the focus is on the most marginal figures, some inherited from the tripartite governments or from Artur Mas.
A selective pruning without impact on the accounts
Despite their minimal revenue weight, these 15 regional taxes are a recurring symbol in the Catalan debate. Catalonia maintains, along with the regional income tax and the ceded taxes, a battery of its own figures such as the water tax or the pollution emissions tax. Abolishing them would hardly relieve the tax burden on taxpayers, but the minister presents it as an exercise in administrative simplification.
The manoeuvre of the ministry cannot be explained without the constraints of the investiture agreement of Salvador Illa. That text expressly prohibits a "massive tax cut," a red line that the Republicans and the Comuns are closely monitoring. Romero rules out touching the income tax—the main revenue instrument—and any generalised increase, insisting that the Govern does not want to "raise taxes."
The minister argued that, compared to the European average, Catalonia is "three points below in tax pressure", which in her opinion allows for not increasing the burden but also not drastically reducing it. The memory of the 2025 income tax modification—which benefited incomes below €35,000—now serves as a precedent and a message to her partners: the Govern will not raise taxes on the middle and lower classes, but neither will it dismantle progressivity.
The political fit: between ERC, the Comuns, and the shadow of Junts
The reform of regional taxes is, in reality, a low-profile operation. The Govern of Illa seeks to show movement without altering the balances of the investiture bloc. Eliminating some regional taxes is less a technical decision today than a political signal: it demonstrates that the Govern "is doing its homework" at home while defending in Madrid the €4.7 billion of the new financing system.
The Generalitat pursues a white-glove reform: eliminating residual taxes without touching income tax. The real fiscal battle will be fought with the new financing model.
Romero's move also sends a message to Junts and the PP, whom she has urged to "try to improve the financing model" instead of blocking it. The minister described it as a "barbarity" to renounce the €4.7 billion that, according to the Govern, would mean rejecting the new system in Congress. This detail, slipped during the interview, is probably the most relevant of the appearance because it connects the domestic fiscal adjustment with the crucial negotiation of the coming weeks.
The calendar is tight: before the end of July 2026, a Fiscal and Financial Policy Council is scheduled to approve the new model, which will then go to the Council of Ministers and the Congress of Deputies. The Govern's goal is to overcome the total debate to start negotiating amendments, a phase in which the reform of regional taxes can become a bargaining chip or, conversely, a distraction element.
For the Catalan taxpayer, the news has a limited short-term impact. The abolition of these 15 taxes will hardly be felt in the pocket, but the freeze on income tax represents a relief for middle and low incomes, which already benefited from the 2025 reduction. The real fiscal battle, which will determine how much money reaches the Catalan coffers, is played out in Madrid with the new financing model. Until then, the Ministry will maintain a discreet profile to avoid excessively straining the seams of the pact with ERC. The final decision on the 15 regional taxes will be known in the coming months, probably when the design of the new model is finalised. Each tax that is abolished will be read as a victory for the liberal wing of the Govern; each one that is maintained, as a nod to the left of the chamber. This is how the Parliament works.
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