Administrative Economic Claim: Process and Competent Courts

Posted on Nov 27, 2025 in Law

Administrative Economic Claim: Characteristics

Economic management is handled via the ordinary course of administrative review for tax matters, constituting the administrative channels that must be exhausted prior to judicial recourse. The characteristics of this economic-administrative appeal are:

  1. It is an administrative appeal, specific to the subject matter and the competent bodies, inspired by a judicial model.
  2. The Economic-Administrative Courts are competent to substantiate these claims. They are bodies of the Ministry of Finance but maintain hierarchical and functional independence from management bodies, except for the Minister, who also acts as an economic-administrative body.
  3. It is the mandatory route to be exhausted prior to judicial recourse.
  4. Depending on the amount involved, the process can develop in one or two instances, aside from certain specific materials and extra resources for specific cases. This depends on the possibility given to the interested party in the second hearing to waive the first instance and appeal directly before the Central Economic-Administrative Court.
  5. It is the exclusive route in economic management, covering both issues of fact and law.

Claimable Actions Subject to Review

There is one specific limitation: the matter must be economic and administrative.

  1. This includes the management, inspection, and collection of income taxes and other State Public Law revenues and their institutional management, as well as taxes transferred to the autonomous communities and surcharges on these state taxes.
  2. The action must be capable of claim. Within the scope of economic and administrative matters, the requirements for actions to be challenged must be specified. The general clause for specifying the challenged act is as follows: those acts that temporarily or permanently recognize or deny a right or declare an obligation, as well as prior acts that directly or indirectly decide the merits and conclude the administrative route.

Economic and Administrative Bodies

The economic administrative claims arise before the Economic-Administrative Courts, to which must be added the Minister of Economy and Finance for certain issues. The courts, in turn, are divided as follows:

  • Regional Economic-Administrative Courts (TEAR)
  • Local Economic and Administrative Court of Ceuta and Melilla (TEAL)
  • Central Economic-Administrative Tribunal (TEAC)

Each of these organs shall have jurisdiction to hear about certain topics. The TEAC handles:

  1. In one instance, economic-administrative complaints filed against administrative acts issued by central ministries, the State Agency, and higher bodies of the Autonomous Communities (CCAA).
  2. In the second instance, appeals made against decisions rendered in the first instance by the TEAR and TEAL.

Legitimacy to File Claims

The following parties are entitled to file complaints and intervene in the case:

  • The interested party (a)
  • The taxable person (b)

Appeal Thresholds and Resources

The resolutions of the TEAR and TEAL may be challenged by appeal to the TEAC, provided the amount of the appeal exceeds 150,000 (in general) or 1,800,000 (in the case of valuations), and provided the first instance was utilized. Below these amounts, the TEAR or TEAL handles the case in a single instance without further recourse.