At the Cabildo seat in Santa Cruz de La Palma, on 23 April 2026 a delegation from Madrid sat down: Minister Ángel Víctor Torres, the new Secretary of State for Territorial Policy Miryam Pérez, the Director General for Autonomous Cooperation, the Government Delegate for the Canary Islands.

Across from them: Cabildo President Sergio Rodríguez. It was the meeting Rodríguez had been demanding for months and which, according to his own words, "could have been held earlier". What was discussed that Thursday concerns thousands of households: the 60 percent reduction on income tax stays in force for 2026 and 2027.

What Torres concretely committed to

In response to journalists' questions, the minister reiterated the investiture pact between PSOE and Coalición Canaria: the 60 percent IRPF reduction is being honoured "in a strict manner". "It will continue in 2026, just as in 2025. And for 2027, we will also seek the precise mechanism to apply it," said Torres.

The Moncloa press release of 23 April 2026 (La Moncloa) confirms this verbatim. So far, more than 1.1 billion euros in federal funds have been transferred for the reconstruction.

Alongside this, Torres announced that the framework agreement for the repair of infrastructure damaged by the volcano will be renewed.

A first 36-million-euro convenio (50 percent from the federal government, 50 percent from the Cabildo) is essentially complete — Torres spoke of "practically executed works". New damage that has emerged over time will also be co-financed.

What Rodríguez says

The Cabildo president thanked the minister for "the tone and the will" but was visibly impatient. "We are drowning, and we need things to happen now," he is quoted by eldiario.es Canarias Ahora on 23 April.

Three weeks earlier, Rodríguez had attacked Torres in a public statement with much sharper tone: he accused him of "putting sticks in the spokes" of the reconstruction payments — presumably for electoral reasons, since Torres might run again as a candidate for the Canary Islands presidency.

The change of tone between March and 23 April is striking. What in April looked in the Cabildo photo like a reconciliatory meeting has a backdrop: by the closing of the Renta campaign at the end of June, the bonification for 2026 had to be publicly confirmed.

Otherwise, thousands of palmero households would have had to file their 2025 return with uncertainty about the following year.

What the measure concretely means

The 60 percent IRPF reduction is a tax discount available to all natural persons with habitual residence on La Palma. A 60 percent rebate is applied to the calculated income-tax liability.

Depending on income level, that can amount to several thousand euros per household per year. It was introduced as part of the "Agenda Canaria" — the 2023 investiture pact between PSOE and Coalición Canaria. It was foreseen for the years 2024 to 2027.

What newcomer residents on La Palma should know now

Anyone living on La Palma as a resident — and this also applies to the small but stable German-speaking community on the island — should above all know the formal requirements.

The reduction applies to people with main residence on La Palma; anyone commuting between islands or living half the year in Germany does not automatically fall under the regulation. Tax residence must be clearly demonstrable — empadronamiento, predominant physical presence on the island, where appropriate Spanish NIE/NIF with a La Palma address.

Important to know: the reduction is not applied automatically. It must be explicitly claimed in the Renta declaration. For the 2025 declaration currently being filed, the reduction is already available.

Anyone using a gestor should ask explicitly whether the reduction has been included; anyone filing personally should check the corresponding field in the digital Renta interface.

Anyone calculating long-term — house purchase, investment — should not bank on the tax saving for the next ten years.

The extension up to 2027 is a political commitment, the concrete legal act typically follows a half-yearly rhythm via Real Decreto-ley ómnibus. The political situation in Madrid is unstable, and the pact between PSOE and CC can break.

What is not running well in the background

Four years after the Cumbre Vieja eruption, a thousand homes have still not been rebuilt, hundreds of families live in provisional accommodation or with relatives. The 1.1 billion euros in federal funds are on paper, but the pace of disbursement has noticeably slowed since early 2025 — something Rodríguez made public in early April.

The hydraulic infrastructure that used to irrigate the banana plantations south of the lava flow has not been restored. A second convenio for that has been in negotiation for months.

The tax reduction for 2026/2027 is an important pillar — symbolically and materially. But it does not replace the reconstruction the island needs.

Rodríguez summed it up with the phrase "estamos ahogados" — we are drowning. Anyone living in Los Llanos de Aridane and waiting for a building plot knows the exact weight of that word.

Martin Kosinski writes for CITA News about business, tourism and service topics. More about the author