Soledad Fernández Doctor, former director of the Tax Agency, asserts that her departure is not related to the tax investigation into José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, but rather to fatigue and her upcoming retirement.
The former director of the State Agency for Tax Administration (AEAT), Soledad Fernández Doctor, denied on Monday having received political pressure from the Government and distanced her departure from the tax investigation opened against former president José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero. In her appearance before the Senate investigation committee regarding the management of SEPI, Fernández Doctor explained that her exit was due to accumulated fatigue and the need to lighten her workload before retiring.
According to her account, she communicated her intention to resign to the Minister of Finance, Arcadi España, when he took office in March. The minister asked her to wait until the end of the income campaign, to which she agreed, making her exit effective on 30 June, coinciding with the end of that campaign. Fernández Doctor insisted that there was no external pressure or link to the investigations concerning Zapatero.
The investigation into Zapatero and the corporate structure
When questioned by the PP about the tax investigations affecting the former president, his family circle, and businessman Julio Martínez —alleged frontman—, Fernández Doctor invoked her duty of confidentiality to refrain from commenting. However, she confirmed that the Agency has opened an inspection procedure regarding Martínez's corporate structure.
The former director acknowledged not understanding how the Agency's control mechanisms did not detect earlier that Martínez had not filed a tax return between 2020 and 2023, despite the PP stating that he earned €50,200 as a consultant and paid €60,000 monthly rent for a property on Diego de León street. "If that is the case, it is a regrettable error and I deeply regret it," she admitted, adding that the management area has already taken action in this regard.
Prescriptions, jewels, and smuggling
The PP accused the Agency of having facilitated the prescription of part of the investigated corporate structure and of having acted only after the judicial discovery of jewels in Zapatero's safe. Fernández Doctor rejected that version, denied having allowed anything to prescribe, and defended that the agency "has done its job", acting whenever it had sufficient evidence.
Regarding her involvement as a potential harmed party in the separate case related to Plus Ultra, she explained that she had to request notification from the court herself, and that two days later she commissioned the State Attorney's Office for her representation. She also noted that there are doubts about a possible smuggling crime linked to the jewels, a matter that will need to be clarified judicially.
Fernández Doctor dismissed any implication of the Tax Agency in the SEPI loan to Plus Ultra and specified that, during her four years in charge, she only met once with former minister María Jesús Montero to discuss personnel matters. When asked about the investigation into alleged bribery affecting José Antonio Marco Sanjuán, former president of the TEAC, she replied that he is on leave and that she is unaware of his relationship with Julio Martínez.
During the session, the former director invoked Article 95.3 of the Tax Agency law to avoid answering questions about Zapatero, but the committee's lawyer replied that this confidentiality does not apply to senior officials in an investigation committee. Fernández Doctor maintained her refusal to avoid a crime of revealing secrets. The appearance leaves in question whether the Agency acted with the necessary urgency, while the PP continues to demand explanations regarding the case.
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