ABSTRACT

A private individual submitted a request for access to information addressed to the Ministry of Finance and Public Administration, which aimed to know the text of the exchange of letters with the Luxembourg authorities within the framework of the double taxation agreement signed with that country as well as all the documentation and background on the matter.

The request was initially dismissed pursuant to section 18.1(b) of the Transparency Act, which provides that a request for information may be inadmissible when it relates to information of an auxiliary or supporting nature.

Once the complaint was filed, the Ministry of Finance and Public Administration confirmed that the text of the exchange of letters was being published in the BOE, so the Council considered that it was a case of Article 18.1(a) – inadmissible because it was information in the process of being published in general. With regard to the background, he reaffirmed that the information was auxiliary or supportive.

The Council of Transparency and Good Governance dismissed the complaint in applying its interpretative criterion with regard to the alleged cause of inadmissibility and taking into account the legal framework applicable to the information requested, especially the indication in the Convention itself signed between the two countries that the information exchanged by the parties in the framework of the application of the Convention may only be transmitted to the persons or authorities responsible for the management or collection of taxes, the declarative or executive procedures relating to these taxes, the resolution of appeals on them or the supervision of such activities.

The judgment of the Central Administrative Court No. 7 of Madrid annuls the resolution of the Council of Transparency and Good Governance