The Central Economic-Administrative Court confirms that employees’ allowances can be subject to an attachment of earnings

The Central Economic-Administrative Court (TEAC) has unified its criteria in its judgment of 15 October 2025, establishing that the allowances paid by an employer to its employees are not considered salary and, consequently, may be subject to an attachment of earnings without any limits whatsoever.

The court has analysed these payments and concluded that, in accordance with the provisions of Article 26.2 of the Workers’ Statute, allowances are non-salary payments, as they are compensation or disbursements that the employer pays to the employee to offset expenses (meals, accommodation or travel) arising from their employment.

As they are considered non-salary items, these allowances are not covered by the protection against seizure provided for in Article 607 of the Civil Procedure Law (LEC, its Spanish acronym) , which establishes the unseizability of salaries and remuneration that do not exceed the guaranteed minimum wage, as well as the attachability of the excess by applying a system of brackets (30%, 50%, 60%, 75% and 90%, depending on the amount exceeding that wage).

Consequently, the court establishes as a criterion that allowances, as compensation or disbursements that an employer pays to its employees, «are not wages, salaries, remuneration or their equivalent for the purposes of the provisions of Article 607 of the LEC», and can therefore be wholly subject to an attachment of earnings without any limit whatsoever.