7,4,1,4. Accounting and Registration Obligations

Accounting and Registration Obligations

The accounting and registration obligations of taxpayers who carry out economic activities depend on the system or method of determining net income:

Direct evaluation: normal mode

Direct evaluation: simplified modality

Objective estimate

Direct evaluation: normal mode

1. Business activities with a commercial character 

   Taxpayers who carry out business activities of a commercial nature, the performance of which is determined in the normal form of the direct estimation system, will be required to keep accounting records in accordance with the provisions of the Commercial Code.

2. Non-commercial business activities

   When the business activity carried out is not of a commercial nature, in accordance with the Commercial Code, the taxpayer will have to keep the following record books:

   1. Sales and income record book.

   2. Book record of purchases and expenses.

   3. Capital goods record book.

   Article 326.2 and 3 of the Commercial Code provides that sales made by property owners and farmers or ranchers of the fruits or products of their crops or livestock, or of the species in which rents are paid to them, or sales made by artisans in their workshops of objects constructed or manufactured, shall not be deemed commercial.

   Therefore, if the conditions set out above are met, agricultural, livestock, forestry and craft activities do not have a commercial character.

3. Professional activities

   Taxpayers who carry out professional activities whose performance is determined under the direct estimation system, in any of its forms, will be required to keep the following record books:

   1. Income record book.

   2. Expense record book.

   3. Capital goods record book.

   4. Record book of provisions of funds and supplies.

Direct evaluation: simplified modality

1. Business activities

   Taxpayers who carry out business activities (whether or not they are commercial in nature), whose performance is determined in the simplified form of the direct estimation regime, will have to keep the following record books:

   1. Sales and income record book.

   2. Book record of purchases and expenses.

   3. Capital goods record book.

2. Professional activities

   Taxpayers who carry out professional activities whose performance is determined under the direct estimation system, in any of its forms, will be required to keep the following record books:

   1. Income record book.

   2. Expense record book.

   3. Capital goods record book.

   4. Record book of provisions of funds and supplies.

Objective estimate

• Capital goods record book.

Taxpayers under the objective assessment regime who deduct amortizations will be required to keep a record book of investment assets.

• Agricultural, livestock and forestry activities

Taxpayers who carry out agricultural, livestock or forestry activities under the objective assessment regime, whose net income is determined taking into account the volume of operations, must also keep a Sales or Income Record Book.

Option for accounting adjusted to the Commercial Code

Taxpayers who are not required to keep accounting records in accordance with the Commercial Code but do so voluntarily will also have to keep the record books determined in each case by the Personal Income Tax regulations.

Conservation of invoices and receipts

Taxpayers of Personal Income Tax shall be obliged to retain, for the maximum limitation period, the supporting documents and documents proving the operations, income, expenses, revenues, reductions and deductions of any kind that must be included in their declarations, to provide them together with the tax declarations and communications, when so established, and to show them to the competent bodies of the tax administration, when required to do so.

Obligation to keep invoices and receipts in objective estimation

Taxpayers who carry out economic activities that determine their net income through the objective estimation system must keep, numbered in date order and grouped by quarter, the invoices issued in accordance with the provisions of Royal Decree 1619/2012, which regulates invoicing obligations.

Likewise, they must retain supporting documents for the signs, indexes or modules applied in accordance with what is provided for, where applicable, in the ministerial order that approves them.

Entities in the income allocation system

Entities under the income attribution regime that carry out economic activities will keep a single set of mandatory books corresponding to the activity carried out, without prejudice to the attribution of income that must be carried out in relation to their partners, heirs, co-owners or participants.