The Provincial Council rejects exempting reparations for sexual abuse from income tax (IRPF)

The Foral Government Council of the Provincial Council of Álava has approved its disagreement and its contrary opinion regarding the General Assemblies of Álava taking into consideration the proposed foral regulation that sought to declare exempt from Personal Income Tax the financial reparations recognized for victims of sexual abuse within the scope of the Catholic Church. The decision is recorded in Agreement 742/2026, dated November 5, adopted in an extraordinary session of the foral governing body. The Official Gazette of the Historical Territory of Álava publishes the extract of this agreement in issue number 131, dated November 13, 2026, with the official reference 2026-03220.

Exactly what the agreement says

The text disseminated by the General Secretariat of the Provincial Council of Álava records the pronouncement in two terms: “disagreement” and “contrary opinion” regarding the foral chamber’s consideration of the legislative initiative. The agreement falls under the Department of Equality, Basque Language and Governance and is part of the block of resolutions approved by the foral executive in the extraordinary session of November 5, 2026.

The gazette publishes an extract of the provisions approved in that session, not the full text of the agreement, therefore the available official reference is limited to the sense of the decision and the object of the proposed foral regulation.

The regulation intended to be modified

The initiative subject to rejection consisted of a modification of Foral Regulation 33/2013, of November 27, on Personal Income Tax, a regulation that governs the taxation of individuals in the Historical Territory of Álava and serves as the basic tax reference in foral legislation. The proposed change affected the tax treatment of the indemnities or financial reparations received by the victims:

• Its objective was to declare those amounts exempt from PIT (IRPF).
• The subjective scope delimited in the proposal was that of reparations to victims of sexual abuse committed within the scope of the Catholic Church.
• The chosen instrument was a foral regulation, given the competence of the Historical Territory of Álava regarding PIT.

The body and the procedure

The “taking into consideration” is the procedure by which the General Assemblies of Álava admit or reject the processing of a proposed foral regulation. In this procedure, the pronouncement of the Foral Government Council establishes the institutional position of the Provincial Council: in this case, the foral executive does not support the initiative and communicates its opposition to it continuing its parliamentary course.

With Agreement 742/2026, the Provincial Council formalizes this opposing criterion, such that the proposal stands in conflict with the express opinion of the government of the Historical Territory at the time of its eventual admission for processing by the provincial chamber.

A session with more decisions

The same extraordinary session of November 5, 2026, included other resolutions collected in the same official extract, among them:

• Provincial Decree 41/2026, of November 5, of the Provincial Government Council, which approves the initial amount of the toll for the use of the AP-68 highway in the Historical Territory of Álava and establishes its conditions of application, assigned to the Department of Sustainable Mobility and Road Infrastructure.
• The block of agreements from the Department of Equality, Basque Language and Governance, in which Agreement 742/2026 is inserted.

Impact

The pronouncement closes, on the part of the provincial government, the path toward a specific tax exemption for economic reparations to victims of sexual abuse within the ecclesiastical sphere and leaves the matter in the hands of the parliamentary debate of the General Assemblies of Álava. For the affected persons and the entities that channel these reparations, the Provincial Council’s opposing criterion means that, if maintained, these amounts would remain subject to the general PIT (Personal Income Tax) regulations in force in Álava.

Source: Official Gazette of the Historical Territory of Álava, no. 131, of November 13, 2026, section I, page 1 (official reference: 2026-03220).