Recurrent: Ministry of Finance

Resolution appealed: R CTBG 1165/2025

In exercise of the right of access to public information, the MINISTRY OF FINANCE was requested to access the response provided by the General Directorate of Taxes, on February 27, 2018, to a consultation carried out by the RTVE corporation on the deductibility of VAT.

The Ministry disallows the request by invoking the provisions of article 95 of Law 58/2003, of December 17, General Tax (hereinafter, LGT) in relation to the provisions of the first additional provision, paragraph 2, LTAIBG, referring to the existence of a specific legal regime of access to information on tax matters in accordance with the provisions of the LGT.

The Council considers the claim by pointing out that Article 34 LGT regulates the rights and guarantees of taxable persons, but does not have as its object the regulation of the right of access to information nor does it contain any provision in this regard; while, on the other hand, Article 95 LGT establishes a confidentiality reserve for tax data, reports and records, so in this case the displacement of the application of the LTAIBG as a result of the provisions established in the LGT must be ruled out.

The application of the existing jurisprudence of the Supreme Court to the claim of access to the consultation formulated by RTVE regarding the deductibility of VAT, together with the provisions of Article 86.2 LGT, which imposes on the Administration the duty of periodically disseminating the content of the most important tax consultations and with greater, leads to the conclusion that this provision for the publication of the responses to consultations is in the regulation itself.

It is considered that, although it is reasonable, as the rule provides, that in the consultations published on the initiative of the DGT, the identification of the interested parties is eliminated, this does not imply that in all cases, the response given to a certain taxable person can not be provided, at the request of another entity or citizen, if only the part in which the criterion maintained by the DGT is given on an aspect or question that arises in the consultation derived from the processing of taxes and on the way to act in tax matters, so that this does not imply that specific tax data of the citizen or entity that made the consultation are provided. Access to the response provided to the queries made to the DGT does not necessarily imply that specific tax data of the subject who made the query are exposed or disclosed, even if it is known.