What does the dispute mean for visitors to Mogán?
The TSJC (the High Court of Justice of the Canaries) declared the 0.15-euro tourist tax per person per night void on 13 July 2026, but the ruling is not yet final. On 14 July the council said it would keep collecting the tax.
It is not confirmed whether Mogán will still charge the tax in November 2026. If you book there, ask your host and check your invoice for a line for the tax.
Guests in hotels, apartment complexes and holiday lets (viviendas vacacionales) had to pay. Operators collected the tax and settled with the council every six months.
No refund rule for guests or hosts has been published, and the ruling does not expressly mention refunds. The money collected, €1.4 million according to the media report on the contract, is to stay frozen, the council says.
Why does the legal opinion cost exactly €14,999?
The council paid the €14,999 through its municipal company Mogán Gestión Municipal (Gestiona) to the Madrid law firm Cremades & Calvo-Sotelo. That is €1 under the 15,000-euro limit up to which the procurement law allows services to be awarded directly.
The contract gives only one reason: the “uniqueness of the subject matter of the contract”. It does not say what is unique, and the work had a deadline of 20 days, with payment due 30 days after the award.
According to the report, Javier Cremades chairs the firm, and former judges of the administrative chamber of the Tribunal Supremo (Spain’s Supreme Court) are among its partners. That same chamber decides whether to admit the council’s appeal.
The report says the pattern is not new and names two earlier contracts. One direct award of 15,000 euros went to José Antonio Choclán, the mayor’s lawyer. Another 17,000 euros went to the firm Montero Aramburu for two opinions by Rafael Fernández Valverde, a retired Supremo judge, in criminal cases against Onalia Bueno.
No statement from the council or Gestiona on the report is available. The contract text itself could not be found on the procurement portal either.
What is in the 26-page opinion?
The opinion is dated 24 September in Madrid, but its electronic signature carries 26 October. Soon afterwards, mayor Onalia Bueno (Juntos por Mogán) took the matter by urgent procedure to the Junta de Gobierno local, the local governing board.
The paper states that it is not a brief preparing the appeal. Of its 23 pages of substance, about ten explain cassation law in general, according to the report, and the analysis of the ruling fills about twelve.
The firm gives three grounds for “cassation interest”: the ruling strikes down a general rule, the Supremo has never ruled on a municipal tourist tax, and the case law would affect more and more councils. A decision by the Supremo’s Third Chamber is therefore not just advisable but necessary.
At the same time the opinion urges caution, saying a correctly drafted appeal could be admitted. But the Supremo chooses “almost at its discretion”, so admission would be difficult.
The paper does not assess possible court costs. Later opinions from the legal departments of Gestiona and the town hall are clearer still, the report says, and speak of solid prospects in cassation.
Why did the Canaries High Court strike down the tax?
On 13 July 2026 the TSJC’s administrative chamber declared the bylaw void, after a challenge by the business association FEHT Las Palmas. The court saw the charge as a tax disguised as a fee.
It criticised the vague definition of what is taxed, because terms such as circular economy, environmental projects and tourism-related activities were too loose. The cost calculation also counted multi-year investments as annual costs and mixed official bed numbers with actual overnight stays.
The court acknowledged the council’s climate-protection effort and credited it with good faith. It still held the tax void and ordered the council to pay costs of no more than 3,000 euros.
The tax applied from 11 March 2025 and was described as Spain’s first municipal tourist tax. The TSJC suspended it on 12 March 2025 and lifted the suspension on 26 March, so it applied again from 27 March 2025.
Revenue at first fell short of expectations. In September 2025 the mayor said about 80 per cent of holiday lets had not yet paid, and about 300 reminders had been sent.
What happens next, legally and politically?
The 30-working-day deadline for the cassation appeal has not started. It begins only once the TSJC rules on the FEHT request to supplement the judgment, and no date is known.
The information available does not show whether the council has already filed the appeal. The Supremo first checks whether to admit it, and only then whether to uphold it.
No refund to guests or hosts has been regulated. It would be a natural step if the council’s appeals fail, but neither the council nor the Gobierno de Canarias has said anything on it.
Municipal and regional elections take place in May 2027. According to the report, Gestiona managing director Eduardo Álamo Perera, who presented the tax with Bueno in December 2024, has registered trademarks with the Interior Ministry that Bueno could stand under.