"Beitragen heißt Investieren in Spanien " - Steuererziehung im Spanien im Jahr 1990

What can the tax authorities do to encourage citizens to pay their taxes more honestly? They can promote honest tax payments in the media! Such tax education, which is completely unfamiliar to German taxpayers, can look back on a long tradition in the USA, for example, and other countries. It has also been practised in Spain since the end of the 1960s and intensified after the transition to democracy. A Treasury television advertisement from 1990 allows an analysis of the narratives used by tax education in the young Spanish democracy. The intense and difficult struggle by state institutions for democratic, equal rights for all citizens even 15 years after Franco's death becomes obvious.

"Contributing means investing in Spain" – Media campaigns on tax education in Spain after the transition to democracy [1]

Von Korinna Schönhärl

Television Advertising for Honest Tax Payments

In 1990, not only did the manufacturers of toothpaste, cars and detergents advertise their products on Spanish television, but also − the Treasury! In numerous adverts shortly before the deadline for submitting income tax returns in June, the authorities promoted the importance of submitting a correct tax return and paying taxes honestly. One example is an advert from 1990 which, like many similar ones, has survived in the Centro de Documentación Publiciaria in Palma de Mallorca[2], which has kindly given permission for its publication. How can we use this advertisement as a source to better understand Spanish society in 1990?

What is the 32-second spot about? In the first shot we see the title “Renta 89. Hast el 20. de Junio” (“Tax Declaration for 1989. Until 20th June”). The creator of the advert is also named: Hacienda Pública, the Treasury. In the following, we see a crowd of people who exemplify the “millions of taxpayers” that the speaker reports on: “There are millions of taxpayers who, with their efforts, are making a better country possible every day”. These people move in various directions in a pedestrian zone, pursuing their daily routines while the camera films them, sometimes from a distance, sometimes zooming in closer. The women and men are dressed in business or casual attire, shopping or on their way to work. One is carrying a large bouquet of flowers. Zooming in closer, three individuals suddenly appear in grey, which clearly sets them apart from the colorful crowd around them. The speaker explains: “However, there are still some who do not want to take part in this common task. And that is not fair”. Two of the grey people turn colorful, while the narrator explains that more and more Spaniards are paying their taxes honestly: “In recent years, we have succeeded to change the minds of many of those who did not collaborate”. The camera now films a crowd of people through the windows of a bus before returning to the stream of people in the pedestrian zone, where the motif just depicted is repeated: many colorful people, only a few grey ones, most of whom turn colorful under the camera's gaze. Only one man with a suit and briefcase remains grey. The people surrounding him suddenly begin to keep a distance from him and avoid him, giving him disparaging looks. The grey man notices his isolation, stops and looks all around in irritation while the speaker's voice explains: “But, for that minority which continues to let the majority down, the Ministry of Economy and Finance will continue to rigorously apply all the measures available to it, because to isolate fraud is to begin to put an end to it”. The last shot shows the spot's motto as written text: “Contributing means investing in Spain”. Hacienda Pública is named as the creator once again.

What is the context of this spot? Generally, tax systems mirror their societies by clearly revealing their structures and distribution of power. For this reason, a look at the history of taxation through the lens of this advertisement can enrich the historical analysis of a society in transition by enabling an analysis of discourses, structures and power relations. Furthermore, periods in which societies changed rapidly and these changes also found expression in reforms to the tax system, such as during the Spanish transición, are of particular interest for tax history to understand how tax reforms react to social change, and also initiate it.

Tax Education Under Authoritarian Rule

So what did the Spanish tax system look like around 1990, and how had it evolved in the preceding years? Under the rule of the dictator Franco, Spaniards had to deal with a tax system which had largely returned to the structures of the 19th century. The tax rate[3] was a very low 10 per cent, indirect taxes were the most important source of revenue, and direct taxes (e.g. on wealth or income) were not progressive, thus did not increase with the level of income. The collection of the sparse direct taxes was organized via professional associations, which were responsible for parceling out their tax duty among their members. Where there was direct contact between taxpayers and the tax administration, taxes were determined not according to profit, but according to “objective” attributes like the number of staff or the technical equipment.[4] In this 19th century-style tax system the profits of the growing industrial sector could not be skimmed off by the exchequer. For everybody apart from wageworkers, who were heavily taxed by withholding, tax evasion or avoidance was very easy, and it was not considered or punished as a crime. There were very few tax inspectors, and they were said to be highly corrupt.[5] In the literature, the regressive tax system of the autocratic regime is considered as an instrument of remuneration for the elites that had supported Franco during the Civil War (1936–1939) and continued to do so after its end: the Catholic church, the powerful landowners and the business elites, especially in the financial and banking sectors.[6]

Already in the 1950s, scholars and the administration recognized that tax evasion was a major problem as the government painfully lacked investment funds and discontent amongst the population was growing.[7] However, the fight against tax evasion via legislation failed continuously. The tax reforms 1957 and 1964, for example, were aimed at combating tax evasion, but without tackling the fundamental structural problems or even generating new ones, and were therefore unsuccessful across the board.[8] Thus, as early as 1967, the Hacienda Pública (Treasury) started the first tax education campaign on honest tax payment in general, apparently drawing on the long US tradition of tax education, which can be traced back to at least the early 1940s.[9] Colored graphics and pictures in newspapers and magazines tried to convince the taxpayers of their duties, appealing to feelings of solidarity and demonstrating the importance of public services financed by taxes.[10] The project was continued in 1969, while Spanish scholars started to publish statistics about the supposedly very high rates of tax evasion.[11] In 1970, the finance ministry started to advertise tax calendars (calendario del contribuyente) in the newspapers, which could be used as yearly calendars but also included information about tax duties and tax days.[12] However, attempts to fundamentally reform the tax system to make it fairer and bring it into line with European standards failed in the first half of the 1970s.

From Subjects to Citizens

In 1975, Franco died, and the process of the transition to democracy in Spain accelerated. Older historiography celebrated this period in Spanish history as a peaceful finding of compromises between the old Francoist and the new democratic elites, moderated by King Juan Carlos and Prime Minister Adolfo Suárez. From the late 1990s, historians started to question this enthusiastic narrative, focusing on the societal changes in various groups that made the transition possible on the one hand, and on the high costs of the compromises, e.g. the agreement not to clear up the crimes and political suppression of Franco's rule, on the other hand.[13] However, in June 1977 the first free election in Spain since the pre-Franco era took place, bringing a clear majority for the political center. In an all-partisan consensus in October of the same year, the so-called Pactos de Moncloa were passed, a reform package including tax reforms that modified the tax system, making it more democratic.[14] The quick reforms were possible because already in 1973 and in 1975 a group of reformers in the Instituto de Estudios Fiscales (Institute for Fiscal Research), led by the future Deputy Prime Minister Enrique Fuentes Quintana (1977–1979), had prepared a comprehensive tax reform plan, which could not be put into practice under Franco's rule, but was thus prepositioned in 1977.[15] The core of the reform was the changeover from 20th century European standards, which also appeared essential for the planned integration into the European Economic Communities. The reform introduced personal, progressive direct taxation (with tax rates on income between 8 and 66 percent, depending on its level), with the aim of distributing the tax burden fairer. The percentage of social security taxes as percentage of public revenue fell in relation to direct and indirect taxes. The right to banking secrecy for tax purposes was eliminated, and different types of tax fraud were defined, what shows the motivation of the reformers to fight tax evasion. Other measures such as the introduction of an extraordinary tax on personal property show that the tax reform was a central battleground for the negotiation of the democratization process.[16] The tax rate, however, rose only slowly from 11.4 percent in 1977 to 20.8 percent in 1986.[17]

In this highly politicized situation before the elections in June 1977, the tax administration started its next tax education campaign. Honest tax payment was legitimized as a vote for justice and democracy and therefore viewed as essential for the process of democratization.[18] A democratic society based on the legal equality of all citizens should be reflected in a fair tax system that treats all taxpayers equally and should provide the necessary resources for the rapid development of the economy and society.

The consensus in questions of taxation quickly broke after the second democratic elections of 1979, so that important parts of the tax reform could not be implemented in practice. However, 1978 saw a major tax campaign under Fuentes Quintana, with the slogan “Hacienda somos todos” (“All of us together are the exchequer”), which is still alive in Spain's collective memory today.[19] This campaign's main narrative was the argument that, due to the new democratic order, the citizens themselves now assigned the parliament (Cortes) that decided about the spending of tax revenues. The national dimension had explicit meaning for the campaign (“By declaring you have to be true to yourself and to Spain”).[20] Declaring your taxes was said to be necessary to be “a good Spaniard”. There were various caricaturist criticisms of this campaign, especially from the conservative side.[21]

After 1980, the financial ministry embarked on tax education at schools. Special videos were produced, which were shown about 400 times that year.[22] As teaching material for pupils, the picture book La Hacienda de todos (Everyone's Treasury) was published, using a transit through history and an explanation of the present system to show the necessity and purposes of public finance and taxes.[23] In 1978, a No-Do (newsreel for cinema) about honest tax payment was produced, advertising the idea that the USA had reached their high living standard only because tax evasion was not widespread there.[24] In 1980, TV was discovered as very usable media for tax education. However, the high costs of production limited the possibilities of the finance ministry, compared with the US American Internal Revenue Service.[25] In 1980/81 most of the short advertising spots on TV presented celebrities, and each one focused on a different argument about why taxes should be paid honestly. E.g., in 1980 the actor Emilio Gutiérrez Caba encouraged citizens to pay taxes despite their dissatisfaction with public services,[26] in 1981 journalist José María García proposed paying taxes honestly so that taxpayers could not be made responsible for the insufficient quality of public services,[27] and actress Bárbara Rey advertised honest tax declaration as a measure enabling people to live contented lives.[28] Other spots focused on the spending side: paying taxes honestly would, for example, make it possible to finance the school and healthcare systems. All the spots with their slightly different argumentation mainly focused on the honest declaration of the income tax and were therefore increasingly broadcast in the weeks leading up to Tax Day (20th June), the deadline for filing individual tax returns. In contrast, direct taxes on consumption and social security contributions were not the focus of the tax education campaigns.

For the very carefully prepared campaign of 1980, still under Prime Minister Suárez, the finance ministry invested five times the amount of money and personnel than in the years before. Ministerio de Hacienda linked the unexpected high number of five million declarations to the campaign.[29] And indeed, according to sociological studies, tax morale (understood as the general attitude of taxpayers towards their tax liability) in Spain reached a remarkably high level in the 1990s.[30] Sara Torregrosa-Hetland discusses whether increased recovery rates in the same period were indeed due to a more voluntarily honest tax payment behavior among higher earners and the self-employed, or whether it was primarily the working class that contributed heavier.[31] The 1980s tax education campaign's aims, however, were to sensitize the taxpayers for the topic and to motive them to pay, to communicate the purposes of public spending, and to present the finance ministry as modern, transparent and service-oriented.[32] The campaigns in 1981 and 1982 also discussed the new computerization of tax administration, focusing on the growing likelihood that evaders would be convicted. Explicitly, fear of social stigmatization for evaders was stimulated,[33] very much in contrast to the entertaining, casual and amusing style of simultaneous US-American campaigns. Tax campaigns also took place on a local level, e.g. in 1982 the city of Madrid explicitly criticized the central tax system, but in parallel asked its citizens to pay their taxes, which were indispensable for the development of the city.[34] The newspaper ABC restarted its tradition of publishing a Guía del contribuyente in the weeks leading up to Tax Day to assist taxpayers in practical questions of declaration.[35]

Tax Education in a Developed Democracy

In 1982, the Spanish socialist party won the elections and took over the government, which can be considered as the end of the transition. The change of government brought a decline in tax education campaigns in the next year, which were then limited to mentions of upcoming Tax Days and the range of services offered by the finance ministry. The widespread tax calendars, however, were given a new design with more pictures and graphical elements that year. In 1984, tax education intensified again, and the finance ministry started to include all education activities in their Memoria (statement of accounts). They mentioned tax education videos for schools for the first time.[36] The fear of being convicted was maintained,[37] and the antisocial dimension of tax evasion was pointed out (“Is your neighbor letting you down?” and “Those who defraud only contribute to you paying more”)[38]. In 1985, a variety of campaigns were launched, and the finance ministry organized and financed the publication of the colored comic El Puente (The Bridge) in Belgian-French Tin-Tin style. The comic told the story of journalist Raul, who ends up on an isolated island where the inhabitants do not yet know of taxes.[39] Raul happens to be elected as chief and introduces taxes to enable the construction of a bridge to another village. The construction of a hospital and school makes further taxes necessary. The comic was distributed at schools and youth centers to inform and educate the next generation of taxpayers about their duties. Additional material for teachers provided information and proposed activities like a class visit to the finance ministry.[40] In 1987, statistics were included in the tax campaign material to show that the number of honest taxpayers was continuously growing, which made the reduction of tariffs possible.[41] In 1988, the computer program P.A.D.R.E. (Programa de Ayuda Declaración Renta) was made available to a broader public for the first time, making declaring easier. Its introduction was accompanied by an intensive campaign in the press, but also on TV.[42] The Memoria of the finance ministry mentions public lectures on taxation, personal letters to supposed taxpayers to remind them of their tax duties, the production of video spots and new brochures, also in English for foreign taxpayers.[43] In 1989, a tax amnesty took place, accompanied by the campaign “Ponerse al día no es tan caro” (“Catching up is not that expensive“).[44] At the same time, the tax authorities deliberately took VIPs such as the famous flamenco singer Lola Flores, from the Sinti and Roma ethnic group and once a loyal follower of Franco, to court for tax evasion in order to generate public attention for the fair application of tax laws without exceptions.

Conclusion: Equal Tax Law for Everybody as a Goal of Democratization

So, the 1990 TV spot[45] has to be understood as part of a much broader campaign for honest tax payment behavior in Spain, a campaign that looked back on twenty-three years of tradition. It very clearly marks paying taxes as a joint responsibility and emphasizes that almost all taxpayers are willing to obey. As part of the community which shares norms on honest taxpaying, individuals should adhere to these norms. The duty to pay is legitimized with reference to the better society that can thus be financed, the idea of fiscal contract. Only a few black sheep are said to still cheat the general public by evading their tax obligations, and the finance ministry promises to be extremely tough on them: the speaker's text indirectly mentions the (new, computer-aided) monitoring systems, which should scare evaders. On the figurative level, however, it is more about the social sanctions that a conviction could entail: exclusion from the community. In this way, the spot brings a second dimension of tax liability into play, suggesting that paying taxes is an ontological civic duty, so that neglecting it inevitably leads to exclusion from the community of citizens. In addition, the fulfillment of the tax obligation is framed in the text of the last setting as a patriotic investment in the future of the nation state, and thus unambiguously presented as rational and sensible economic action.

The spot therefore shows very clearly how Spanish society at the beginning of the 1990s was struggling to democratize: the tax laws that had only been in force for five years were now to apply to everyone, regardless of their social status or wealth. The state and its tax authorities were ready and most determined to make this new equality a reality.



[1] Large parts of this text are taken verbatim from the article Korinna Schönhärl / Nasrin Düll / Nadya Melina Ramírez Lugo, Tax Education After WWII: How Spain, the USA, and West Germany Tried to Make Their Citizens Pay Honestly, in: Sebastian Guex / Hadrian Buclin (Ed.), Tax Evasion and Tax Havens since the Nineteenth Century, Cham 2023, pp. 355–376, with kind permission of my co-authors Nasrin Düll and Nadya Melina Ramírez Lugo.Essay on the source: Television Advert on Tax Education in Spain (1990); [Video and Spanish and English Transcript], in: Themenportal Europäische Geschichte, 2024, URL: <https://www.europa.clio-online.de/quelle/id/q63-81253>.

[2] Centro de Documentación Publiciaria in Palma de Mallorca, URL:<https://www.lahistoriadelapublicidad.com/index.php>.

[3] The term “tax rate” refers to the ratio between public tax revenue and gross domestic product (GDP).

[4] Francisco Comín Comín, Public Finance in Spain During the 19th and 20th Century. Fundación Empresa Pública, Working Paper, in: Pablo Martín-Aceña / James Simpson (Ed.), The economic development of Spain since 1870 (The economic development of modern Europe since 1870; 6), Aldershot 1995, pp. 521–560; Francisco Comín Comín, La Hacienda pública en el Franquismo autárquico, 1940–1959, in: Carlos Barciela López (Ed.), Autarquía y mercado negro. El fracaso económico del primer franquismo, 1939–1959, Barcelona 2003, pp. 247–272; Francisco Comín Comín, La Hacienda Pública durante el Franquismo: el retroceso en la modernización del Estado (1936–1975), in: Carlos Barciela López / Antonio Di Vittorio / Joaquín Melgarejo Moreno (Ed.), La evolución de la hacienda pública en Italia y España (siglos XVIII–XXI), Alicante 2015, pp. 325–352.

[5] Francisco Comín Comín, Reforma tributaria y reforma de la inspección durante la transición a la democracia en España, in: Juan Pan-Montojo (Ed.), Los Inspectores de Hacienda en España. Una mirada histórica, Madrid 2007, pp. 85–124.

[6] Francisco Comín Comín, El fraude fiscal en la Historia de España, in: Instituto de Estudios Fiscales (Ed.), El fraude fiscal en la historia de España (Hacienda pública española Monografias; 1), Madrid 1994, pp. 5–21.

[7] Manuel Torres Martínez, La distribución de la riqueza dentro de la Renta Nacional Española. Realidades y perspectivas, in: Secretariado de la Junta Nacional de Semanas Sociales (Ed.), Hacia una más justa distribución de la riqueza. IX Semana Madrid 1949, Madrid 1950, pp. 139–154; Vicente Torres López, Las causas de las infracciones tributarias, in: Semana de Estudios de Derecho Financiero IX (1961), pp. 301–306; José Angel Sánchez Asiain, El problema de la evasión fiscal en España, in: Boletín de estudios económicos (1952), pp. 153–159.

[8] Comín Comín, Public Finance in Spain, p. 529.

[9] Carolyn C. Jones, Seeing Taxation in the Mid-Twentieth Century: US Tax Compliance, in: Sven Steinmo (Ed.), The Leap of Faith. The Fiscal Foundations of Successful Government in Europe and America, Oxford 2018, pp. 198–222. The question of whether and to what extent tax education was practiced in other (European) countries in the 1970s–90s is still awaiting investigation. For the current status of tax education, see OECD, Building Tax Culture, Compliance and Citizenship. A Global Source Book on Taxpayer Education, 2nd ed., Paris 2021.

[10] La Administración y el contribuyente ante los impuestos. Reflexiones sobre una campaña educativa, in: La Vanguardia Española, 10.6.1967, p. 22.

[11] José Angel Sánchez Asiain, Análisis del sistema tributario español a través de la presión fiscal directa, aparente y real, in: Anales de Economía 1 (1963), Ene-Mar, pp. 5–56; Alfonso Gota Losada, La realidad de la imposición personal sobre la renta, in: Hacienda Pública Española 3 (1970), pp. 17–41.

[12] Ministerio de Hacienda: El mejor libro para el contribuyente: Los impuestos en España 1967 (advertisement), in: ABC, 10.10.1967, 55. Also normal pocket calendars soon included calendario del contribuyente, e.g. Conozca Vd. nuestras agendas 1971. Imprescindibles para su trabajo, inapreciables como obsequio, in: ABC, 11.12.1970, p. 6.

[13] Ulrike Capdepón, Spaniens Übergang zur Demokratie und Westintegration. Von der ausbleibenden Auseinandersetzung mit der Franco-Diktatur zur Abkehr vom Transitionskonsens, in: Jörg Ganzenmüller (Ed.), Europas vergessene Diktaturen? Diktatur und Diktaturüberwindung in Spanien, Portugal und Griechenland (Europäische Diktaturen und ihre Überwindung), Wien/Köln/Weimar 2018, pp. 113–130.

[14] Francisco Comín Comín, Reaching a Political Consensus: The Moncloa Pacts, Joining the European Union, and the Rest of the Journey, in: Jorge Martinez-Vazquez / José Félix Sanz-Sanz (Ed.), Fiscal reform in Spain. Accomplishments and challenges (Studies in fiscal federalism and state-local finance), Cheltenham 2007, pp. 8–58.

[15] Sara Torregrosa-Hetland, The Spanish Fiscal Transition. Tax Reform and Inequality in the Late Twentieth Century, Cham 2021, p. 6.

[16] Comín Comín, Public Finance in Spain, p. 530.

[17] Comín Comín, Reaching a Political Consensus, p. 45.

[18] Ministerio de Hacienda: Su declaración, un voto de confianza para España, in: ABC, 28.6.1977, p. 16.

[19] E.g. Hacienda somos todos. No nos engañemos, in: ABC, 26.5.1978, p. 28. For the remembrance culture, see Gràffica, 19.1.2016; 20minutos, 7.6.2017. In 1988, director Antonio Ozores produced his film “Hacienda somos casi todos”, which deals with the consequences of tax evasion for personal relationships, and was not initiated or sponsored by the Ministerio de Hacienda.

[20] Ministerio de Hacienda: Al declarar sea fiel a sí mismo y a España, in: ABC, 4.5.1976, p. 18.

[21] E.g. Caricature in La Vanguardia, España, 12.7.1978, p. 15.

[22] Inspección General del Ministerio de Hacienda: Información y asistencia a los contribuyentes, 3.2.1981, 5, in: Archivo del Ministerio de Hacienda Madrid, Caja 1195918.

[23] José Ramón Sánchez Sanz / Alberto Martín Baró / Natacha Seseña, La Hacienda de todos, Madrid 1980.

[24] No Do: Revista Cinematográfica Española No. 1.828, Año XXXVI, 6.2.1978, in: Filmoteca Española, RTVE.

[25] Ministerio de Hacienda: Campaña de publicidad y divulgación del Impuesto sobre la Renta – 1981, in: Archivo del Ministerio de Hacienda Madrid, Caja 1195918.

[26] Ministerio de Hacienda: Impuesto sobre la Renta, Anuncio televisivo con Emilio Gutiérrez Caba, Mayo 1980, segunda parte, in: Centro de Documentación Publicitaria, Palma de Mallorca.

[27] Ministerio de Hacienda: Impuesto de la renta, Anuncio televisivo con José María García , Mayo 1981, tercera parte, in: Centro de Documentación Publicitaria, Palma de Mallorca.

[28] Ministerio de Hacienda: Impuesto de la renta, Anuncio televisivo con Barbara Rey, Mayo 1981, tercera parte, in: Centro de Documentación Publicitaria, Palma de Mallorca.

[29] Inspección General del Ministerio de Hacienda: Información y asistencia a los contribuyentes, 3.2.1981, in: Archivo del Ministerio de Hacienda Madrid, Caja 1195918.

[30] James Alm / Benno Torgler, Culture Differences and Tax Morale in the United States and in Europe, in: Journal of economic psychology: research in economic psychology and behavioral economics 27 (2006), 2, pp. 224–246, here p. 231. The research is based on the data of the World Values Survey, URL: <https://www.worldvaluessurvey.org/wvs.jsp>, which is not available for Spain before 1990-1994. In the research period between 1995 and 1999, the Spanish left the Germans far behind in terms of their tax morale, and in 2005–2009 also the US Americans.

[31] Torregrosa-Hetland, The Spanish Fiscal Transition.

[32] Ibid.

[33] Ministerio de Hacienda: Declare en beneficio de todos, in: ABC, 3.4.1981, p. 103.

[34] Excelentísima Diputación Provincial de Madrid. Delegación de Hacienda y Planificación Económica: La contribución urbana y la licencia fiscal (se destinan a financiar los presupuestos de los ayuntamientos), in: ABC 22.7.1982, p. 22.

[35] Guía del contribuyente, in: ABC, 4.3.1982, pp. 39–42.

[36] Ministerio de Economía y Hacienda: Memoria de la Administración Tributaria 1984, p. 286ff., in: Archivo del Ministerio de Hacienda Madrid.

[37] “Hacienda cada vez más cerca. No nos defraude.” [“The Treasury is getting closer. Don't let us down.“], in: ABC, 10.6.1984, p. 183.

[38] ¿Le defrauda su vecino?, in: ABC, 11.5.1984, p. 74; Los que defraudan sólo contribuyen a que usted pague más, in: ABC, 12.5.1984, p. 2.

[39] Juan Manuel Ruigómez Iza / J. M. Lago, El Puente, s.l., 1985.

[40] María Luisa Delgado Lobo / Marta Fernández-Cuartero Paramio / Ascensión Maldonado García-Verdugo / Concepción Roldán Muñío / María Luisa Valdenebro García, La educación fiscal en España, in: Documentos – Instituto de Estudios Fiscales (2005), 29, pp. 1–34, here p. 10. The authors report that the book was not widespread, because in the end it was not authorized by the finance ministry.

[41] Ministerio de Hacienda: 525.000 nuevos contribuyentes presentaron su declaración del Impuesto sobre la Renta en 1.986, in: ABC, Sevilla, 24.6.1987, pp. 20f.

[42] 20 minutos, 3.4.2017.

[43] Ministerio de Economía y Hacienda: Memoria de la Administración Tributaria 1988, pp. 344–351, in: Archivo de Ministerio de Hacienda Madrid.

[44] Ministerio de Hacienda: Hacienda Pública: Ponerse al día no es tan caro, in: ABC, Sevilla, 14.7.1989, p. 49.

[45] Unfortunately, it is not known whether the films were produced by the ministry itself or outsourced to a production company. This information could not be found in the Archivo de Ministerio de Hacienda Madrid. The fact that no production company is mentioned, but on the other hand, personnel from the ministry were assigned to the production, points to the first option.


Q_Schönhärl_Steuererziehung

Television Advert on Tax Education in Spain (1990); [Video and Spanish and English Transcript][1]

The publication of the video was kindly permitted by the Centro de Documentación Publiciaria in Palma de Mallorca[2]

Spanish and English Subtitles:

[00:00:02.000]
Son millones los contribuyentes que, con su esfuerzo,
[00:00:02.000]
There are millions of taxpayers who, with their efforts,
[00:00:04.730]
están haciendo posible un país cada día mejor.
[00:00:04.674]
are making it possible to have a better country every day.
[00:00:07.514]
Sin embargo, todavía quedan algunos
[00:00:07.520]
However, there are still some who do not want to take part
[00:00:09.368]
que no quieren participar en esta tarea en común,
[00:00:10.326]
in this common task.
[00:00:12.043]
y eso no es justo
[00:00:11.967]
And that is not fair.
[00:00:13.786]
En los últimos años,
[00:00:13.683]
In recent years,
[00:00:14.744]
se ha logrado que muchos de los que no colaboraban,
[00:00:14.484]
we have succeeded to change the minds of many of those
[00:00:16.972]
cambien de opinión.
[00:00:16.626]
who did not collaborate
[00:00:18.215]
Pero, para esa minoría
[00:00:18.349]
but, for that minority
[00:00:19.330]
que todavía sigue defraudando a la mayoría,
[00:00:19.118]
which continues to let the majority down,
[00:00:21.586]
el Ministerio de Economía y Hacienda
[00:00:21.251]
the Ministry of Economy and Finance will continue to rigorously apply
[00:00:23.358]
va a seguir aplicando con rigor todas las medidas a su alcance,
[00:00:24.900]
all measures available to it,
[00:00:26.914]
porque aislar el fraude es empezar a acabar con él.
[00:00:26.836]
because to isolate fraud is to begin to put an end to it.


[1] Essay zur Quelle: Korinna Schönhärl, "Contributing means investing in Spain" – Media campaigns on tax education in Spain after the transition to democracy, in: Themenportal Europäische Geschichte, 2024, URL: <https://www.europa.clio-online.de/essay/id/fdae-134397>.

[2] Centro de Documentación Publiciaria in Palma de Mallorca, URL: <https://www.lahistoriadelapublicidad.com/index.php>.

Für das Themenportal verfasst von

Korinna Schönhärl

( 2024 )
Zitation
Korinna Schönhärl, "Beitragen heißt Investieren in Spanien " - Steuererziehung im Spanien im Jahr 1990, in: Themenportal Europäische Geschichte, 2024, <www.europa.clio-online.de/essay/id/fdae-134397>.
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