Directives of the Annual Tax Control Plan

• The design of a virtual assistant in personal income tax will begin and the boxes of the declaration will be expanded, on which possible errors will be reported if they are modified
• The Agency promotes digital solutions with SMEs and self-employed workers to finance with European funds to comply with the legal prohibition of sales concealment software
• The automated transfer pricing risk analysis system is now fully operational, which will strengthen the control of international taxation.
• The visit plan will affect 'nests of companies', including 'coworking' centers, and the appearances will be resumed at headquarters of economic activity
• Economic Interest Groups that may be mere 'vehicles' for tax benefits will be analyzed

January 31, 2022 .- The Tax Agency plans to deploy, starting in 2022, a strategy to extend the use of taxpayer behavior analysis techniques in the organization in order to facilitate voluntary compliance . In this sense, as stated in the general guidelines of the 2022 Tax Control Plan published today in the Official State Gazette, the Agency will create a working group in charge of defining the internal practices that already incorporate these techniques, how to improve them and identify new ones. areas and processes where they can be applied, taking into account both their own experience in the matter and that of other tax administrations, all based on the OECD's 'behavioral insights' approach to public action.

The approach involves systematizing the use of these techniques to improve voluntary compliance with tax obligations from the perspective of communications with taxpayers and also the Agency's computer applications. The aim is to consolidate new work techniques, more efficient and less burdensome for the taxpayer, encouraging their own voluntary decisions, adopted with proper information, to determine the improvement of tax compliance.

Under the same approach of better understanding taxpayer behavior to then encourage spontaneous improvement in tax compliance, the Tax Agency will advance tools that it has already been using for these purposes. Thus, 'machine learning' will be consolidated in Renta Web to reduce foreseeable errors by taxpayers when completing their declaration, increasing the number of boxes with informative messages. Likewise, the issuance of 'warning letters' will be resumed to taxpayers who, over time, present certain parameters that point to a potential risk of non-compliance.

The information offered to the taxpayer will also be reinforced when preparing their own tax returns. In the Corporate Tax, the provision of notices generated during the presentation to taxpayers will be extended, while in Personal Income Tax the information offered in the tax data will continue to increase and in the VAT draft ('PRE303') the group of taxpayers to whom the added books will be offered, thus facilitating the preparation of the tax return.

Towards a virtual assistant for Rent

The improvement in assistance will also come through the consolidation and evolution of the Comprehensive Digital Assistance Administrations, the ADI, as well as from a new boost to virtual assistants, advancing in the design of the 'Census Assistant' for registrations, cancellations and modifications to the taxpayer's census information, but also starting in the Income Tax the course opened in recent years with the VAT assistants.

Thus, the 2022 Guidelines mark the beginning of the design of a virtual Income Assistant, designed both to answer the queries made by taxpayers, and to obtain feedback on the most common doubts of taxpayers in this matter to provide feedback. the knowledge base of the tool itself. While this assistant is being developed, the contents of the so-called 'Income Informator' will be expanded to respond through structured informative content to the most frequent questions raised by taxpayers.

On the other hand, in the Collection Area, the consolidation and evolution of telephone and electronic channels stands out as platforms for personalized information and facilitators of payment without the need to travel, reducing waiting times and administrative response times.

Control of international taxation

Within the scope of tax control, once again the Guidelines highlight the section dedicated to the control of international taxation, and especially the '360 strategy' in terms of transfer pricing (intragroup) in order to interrelate the different procedures that may affect the related operations of a specific taxpayer in a way that ensures tax compliance, avoiding disputes.

At the center of this strategy is the new automated transfer pricing risk analysis system designed by the Central Delegation of Large Taxpayers, in collaboration with the National Office of International Taxation, ONFI, and already fully operational in 2022, which It brings together all the internal and international information available on the subject, and is periodically updated with new sources. This system will make it possible to identify behavioral patterns of high fiscal risk.

On the other hand, and taking into account the Community jurisprudence that reinforces the application of anti-abuse measures, the inspection will ensure the correct application of these rules in relation to the application of exemptions in payments of dividends, interest and royalties to non-residents.

In relation to the fight against territories and regimes that favor evasive and elusive conduct, the inspection actions will ensure the correct application of the 'anti-paradise' rules existing in the regulations, but from now on the information received in the year 2021 on compliance with the substantial activity requirement provided for in the development of the BEPS project. This is a new exchange promoted by the OECD Forum on Harmful Tax Practices through which territories with a non-existent Corporate Tax, or with a zero or very low rate, offer the countries of residence of the parent companies or beneficiaries effective final information on entities located in those territories that carry out activities that can easily be relocated.

Complex analysis of hidden assets

Together with the usual analysis and investigation work carried out by the National Fraud Investigation Office, the ONIF, as well as the subsequent control carried out in the different regional areas on taxpayers with relevant assets in matters such as the simulation of tax residence abroad, or the creation of structures to hide income and assets, the Relevant Assets Control Unit will dedicate part of its efforts this year to two specific areas of work.

On the one hand, it will complete the second phase of the tool created for the automated detection of beneficial owners of opaque companies holding high-level residential properties. If in the first phase the work was directed towards foreign companies, now it will be completed with equally opaque companies, but based in Spain. On the other hand, the Unit will implement the necessary tools for the massive exploitation of new information from the General Council of Notaries.

Combating the underground economy

In the field of control of the underground economy, the fight against the use of sales concealment systems will be strengthened, in accordance with the legal prohibition established in the Anti-Fraud Law. As provided for in Component 27 of the Recovery Plan and with a view to the regulatory development of the law, the Tax Agency is holding meetings with SME and self-employed organizations to analyze technical alternatives that allow, not only compliance with the prohibition, but also also provide comprehensive digital solutions for compliance with billing and registration obligations and the progressive obtaining of draft declarations to the extent that the billing system also enables the automatic sending of information to the Agency, all in a context of availability of European funds to finance the digitalization of self-employed workers and SMEs.

On the other hand, after the reinforcement given in the Anti-Fraud Law, appearances will be promoted again at the headquarters where economic activities are carried out to combat the unsupportive behavior of a very small part of taxpayers who take advantage of the difficulty of contrasting data on the real volume. from income.

Likewise, the traditional 'visit plan' will continue, with its double component of control and promotion of the improvement of voluntary compliance, highlighting this year those dedicated to verifying census issues, which will include visits to the so-called 'nests of companies', as can be found in 'coworking' centers and places for simply receiving correspondence.

Checks will continue in those sectors or business models in which high levels of the shadow economy are observed, and especially in areas in which cash is used as the only accepted means of payment, or in which it can be used above the legal limitation of cash transactions. At the same time, the analysis group of possible non-filing VAT taxpayers will be expanded and, in the context of collaboration with the Labor Inspection, sectors with frequent subcontracting schemes will be analyzed to verify the correct VAT and Personal Income Tax taxation of companies. that have supposedly self-employed workers.

E-commerce and digital economy

In 2022, the Agency will also influence the control of transactions carried out through electronic commerce, as well as in certain areas of the digital economy itself; that is, those that are essentially developed through the Internet. In relation to online sales, the tax identification of companies not domiciled in Spain, but which must pay VAT on their sales to Spanish consumers, will once again be affected.

For these purposes too, and in collaboration with other tax administrations of the European Union, control over the electronic commerce platforms themselves will be tightened. In turn, the taxable events of the Tax on Certain Digital Services are helping to determine the real scope of the activity of these multinational platforms in the Spanish market, allowing data to be cross-referenced with the declarations presented.

In relation to the digital economy, formulas will be promoted to obtain economic and commercial information that can be exploited in subsequent verifications. The Agency emphasizes in the Guidelines that the increase in activity carried out through the Internet implies the need for exhaustive control of its correct taxation, avoiding fraud and unfair competition. Thus, in 2022 the Tax Agency plans to increase actions in those digital activities that may present greater tax risk.

Specific actions in Corporate Tax

The verification task will also continue with respect to taxpayers who have repeatedly entered in their returns negative tax bases to be offset and deductions pending to be applied in the Corporate Tax. The increase in these balances and the risk that this implies of undue tax reduction in future years makes special control necessary.

Another risk is the improper use of tax benefits by entities without activity, whose main reason for existence is, precisely, to take advantage of these benefits. The Guidelines make special reference to the use of associative structures such as Economic Interest Groups. The Agency will focus on cases in which they serve as mere 'vehicles' to transfer tax benefits to third-party investors interested in enjoying these advantages, and this analysis and verification will not be limited to the intermediary itself, but will also reach the participants or partners. .

It will also be an action to promote the verification of compliance with the requirements demanded of a Variable Capital Investment Company to benefit from a tax rate lower than the general one. Enabled to verify compliance with the necessary requirements, the Tax Agency will analyze the situation as the deadlines of the transitional period given to the Sicavs come to an end in order, where appropriate, to transform or transfer the investment to funds.

Customs control and fight against drug trafficking and smuggling

In the customs field, along with the usual controls carried out in this field, the Guidelines emphasize that in the most serious cases of fraud, likely to generate criminal actions, the powers of the new European Public Prosecutor's Office come fully into play, body that assumes investigative powers in crimes that affect the traditional own resources of the EU such as import duties, whose management and control corresponds to the Customs and Excise Area of the Agency.

The analysis of the flow of imports with the United Kingdom after its withdrawal from the European Union is also considered of interest, in order to avoid improper use of existing tariff preferences for certain products in other territories, but transit through the United Kingdom before reach the Union.

In terms of the fight against drug trafficking, the control efforts derived from the prohibition on the use of 'drug boats' will continue, which last year already led to the seizure of more than 700 vessels. On the other hand, Campo de Gibraltar will continue to be a priority area in operational actions against drug trafficking, although special attention will also be paid to neighboring provinces due to the displacement of activities of criminal organizations.

Also, in support of the maritime intelligence offices of the Customs Surveillance Service, new technologies will be developed to update the centrally managed maritime surveillance and control tools as a boost to air-naval operations and research work.

Regarding tobacco smuggling, it is planned to influence border controls and investigations into organizations based on the reactivation of the Memorandum of Understanding agreed with Gibraltar, as well as to reinforce, within the framework of the sanctioning regime incorporated in the Anti-Fraud Law, control over raw tobacco to prevent its diversion for illicit manufacturing.

Fraud in the collection phase

While maintaining permanent priorities in the area of Collection, such as the taking of precautionary measures to avoid asset depletion, the adoption of liability derivations to ensure the effective collection of debts, or the monitoring of debtors convicted of crimes, They will also address the organizational modifications necessary for full dedication of the area's human resources to tax collection research.

At the same time, the new system for recording and monitoring income managed through collaborating entities (the so-called 'NRC online') allows immediate knowledge of this information that will now be used both from the point of view of assistance and information to the taxpayer, as well as income control.