Catalonia’s pro-separatist government has set up its own tax agency that is ready for action if the Catalan people vote for independence on the October 1 referendum.
Speaking to reporters, the head of the Catalan regional government Carlos Puigdemont, said
“We have put in place the structures necessary for Catalonian to be ready to enforce the will Catalans express in the October 1 Referendum.”
The Catalan tax agency has doubled its workforce and implemented a computer scheme to allow it to collect fiscal revenue within a few months of the referendum, reports Agence France Presse.
“The goal of this deployment is to have the capacity to manage taxes regularly and in a large scale,“ said Catalonia’s vice-president Oriol Junqueras.
In response to the press conference, Spain’s finance ministry warned that anyone who paid their taxes to the Catalan authority instead of the central government’s tax agency could face criminal penalties.