Judge investigating royal couple questions tax office report

Judge José Castro has called into question the Tax Agency’s judgment that Princess Cristina and her husband Iñaki Urdangarin were justified in claiming expenses charged to the real estate company Aizoon, jointly owned by the royal couple, were tax deductible.

The judge considers that Aizoon cannot claim as tax deductible expenses that, according to the investigations ordered by Castro, were never incurred.

“This magistrate cannot share the opinion of the Tax Agency that expenses included in the corporate tax return for 2007 can be considered deductible on the basis of documents that carry serious irregularities, and that constitute circumstantial proof of a crime,” Castro said.

The magistrate also noted that the Tax Agency’s own report on Aizoon’s activity, issued in November, stated that functions organized by the company “did not require the incurring of any costs.”

After opposing the Tax Agency’s stance, Castro reached the conclusion that the taxes Aizoon should have paid “are more than 120,000 euros and, as a result, indicative of a financial crime that requires investigation.” Furthermore, Castro admonished the Tax Agency for “trying to clear up” the identity of the instigators of the financial crime he referred to by stating that all the matters under investigation “were in one way or another under the complete dominion of Urdangarin and [his former business partner Diego] Torres.”

Castro said that at this stage it was impossible to deduce whether the Tax Agency’s findings, which absolve the princess of wrongdoing, are accurate or not. “We will have to wait for the result of the investigation.”