The Spanish Confederation of Seniors’ Organizations, CEOMA, has requested clarification from the Ministry of Finance about the next personal income tax campaign, warning of possible unequal treatment of pensioners with low incomes. The organization maintains that those who collect pensions close to the minimum wage could be left out of the deduction designed to avoid taxation for workers with reduced income, despite the fact that contributory pensions are also taxed as income from work.
The origin of the controversy is in the measure approved by the Government in February, which maintains a tax reduction linked to low salaries and, according to the Treasury, will allow an employee with 17,000 euros per year to pay zero euros in personal income tax in 2026 compared to the 356 euros they paid in 2025. The deduction will decrease as the salary increases and will reach incomes of up to 20,000 euros, according to the department headed by María Jesus Montero.
CEOMA, an entity that represents nearly 800,000 seniors through its confederated organizations, maintains that thousands of pensioners with incomes equivalent to or even lower than the SMI could continue to bear withholdings or effective tax contributions. The core of their complaint is not the reduction for employees, but the absence of an explicit extension to low pensions and other assimilated work benefits.
The point of friction between salaries and pensions
The organization’s argument is based on a known technical basis, where personal income tax regulations frame contributory public pensions within work income. Hence, CEOMA defends that, if fiscal policy aims to protect the lowest incomes, the decisive criterion should be the real economic capacity and not the origin of the income.
José Luis Fernández Santillana, president of CEOMA, has insisted on this idea in recent weeks. In a note released by the confederation itself, the leader demanded that the Executive review the measure to include “everyone regardless of whether they are an employee, a pensioner or self-employed.” The entity maintains that a difference in treatment between SMI recipients and retirees with similar incomes would be “totally discriminatory.”
However, for now the Treasury has not released a specific modification that incorporates pensioners into this extraordinary scheme. The official information published by the ministry details the scope of the deduction for low-income earners, but does not specify an equivalent extension for recipients of contributory pensions. This regulatory silence is precisely what CEOMA wants to clear before the next statement.
CEOMA points out that the rising cost of living has reduced the pockets of many retirees and that a tax difference of this type would aggravate this situation. The organization asks to review the treatment of low pensions in personal income tax to guarantee the equity of the tax system.