Lanciego initially approves a tourist stay tax in La Rioja Alavesa

The Plenary of the Lanciego City Council approved on September 17, 2026, the imposition agreement and the initial approval of the fiscal ordinance regulating the tourist stay tax. The official announcement is published in the Official Gazette of the Historical Territory of Álava (BOTHA) number 110, dated September 25, 2026, under reference 2026-02715. The file is open to the public for thirty days for the submission of claims.

The decision was adopted in an ordinary session of the municipal Plenary and is processed in accordance with Article 19 of Normative Foral Decree 1/2021, which approves the consolidated text of the Foral Norm regulating Local Treasuries. The imposition agreement is the necessary preliminary step to create a local municipal tax, in this case a levy on tourist stays that, according to the announcement, will affect accommodations and visitors in the municipality.

The full text of the ordinance is available at the municipal offices so that interested parties may examine the file and submit any claims they deem appropriate. The deadline is thirty days from the publication of the announcement. In the event that no claims are submitted, the agreement will be understood as definitively approved, without the need for a new pronouncement by the Plenary.

A thirty-day public information process

• Approving body: Plenary of the Lanciego City Council, in an ordinary session on September 17, 2026.
• Signature of the announcement: the mayor Itziar de Álava Martínez de Icaya, in Lanciego, on September 17, 2026.
• Publication: BOTHA number 110, of September 25, 2026, section II, Local Administration of the Historical Territory of Álava.
• Deadline for claims: thirty days from the publication of the announcement.
• Effect if there are no allegations: automatic definitive approval of the agreement, which until then was provisional.

A tax extending across Rioja Alavesa

Lanciego joins a series of municipalities in the region that have been processing the same tax in recent weeks. The Elciego City Council provisionally approved its ordinance on July 31, 2026 (BOTHA of August 12); the Navaridas City Council, on August 25 (BOTHA of September 4); the Leza City Council, on September 3 (BOTHA of September 11); the Labastida City Council, on September 14 (BOTHA of September 23); and the Lapuebla de Labarca City Council, on September 17, the same day as Lanciego (BOTHA of September 25).

All these files invoke Article 19 of Normative Foral Decree 1/2021 and, in several cases, Article 49 of Law 7/1985, of April 2, regulating the Bases of Local Regime. The initial approval does not exhaust the process: the ordinance must be published in full in the BOTHA once it becomes definitive.

Legal basis and effects of the agreement

Lanciego’s announcement does not detail tax rates or quotas, as it is limited to formalizing the imposition agreement and the initial approval of the regulatory text. The regulation is now subject to the public information process provided for in the provincial legislation on local treasuries, which is the channel for interested parties to submit observations before final approval.

The new tax makes Lanciego one of the municipalities in Rioja Alavesa that will tax tourist overnight stays, a mechanism through which city councils seek to provide themselves with own revenues linked to tourism activity. The municipality’s accommodations and visitors will be the direct recipients of the regulation, the final content of which will depend on the result of the open allegations period.

Source: Official Gazette of the Historical Territory of Álava (BOTHA), no. 110, September 25, 2026, section II (Local Administration), page 1 (official reference: 2026-02715).