11.3.1.4 Application of the regime

This special regime will be applied in the following way:

Its application is conditional on authorization by the Ministry of Finance upon request of the taxpayer. Said request must refer to all the vessels operated, or with respect to which technical and crew management is carried out, by the entities of the same tax group, and must be accompanied by the documents listed in article 53 of the LIS .
The request must specify the tax period from which it will take effect and will be submitted prior to the beginning of the period.
The instruction and resolution of this procedure corresponds to the General Directorate of Taxes, which may request from the taxpayer whatever data, reports, background information and supporting documents are necessary.

To grant the regime, the Ministry of Finance will take into account the existence of an effective contribution to the objectives of the community maritime transport policy, especially with regard to the technological level of ships that guarantees safety in navigation and prevention. of environmental pollution and the maintenance of community employment both on board and in tasks auxiliary to maritime transport. To this end, the General Directorate of Taxes may obtain a prior report from the competent bodies.
Once the procedure has been instructed and before drafting the resolution proposal, it will be made known to the taxpayer, who has 15 days to formulate allegations and present the documents and supporting documents that he considers appropriate.
The resolution that ends the procedure must be motivated and may authorize the regime of shipping entities based on tonnage, or reject the granting of said regime. Said resolution must be resolved within a period of 3 months, after which it can be understood as denied.
The authorization will be granted for a period of 10 years from the date established by the authorization, and the taxpayer may request its extension for additional periods of another 10 years.
If, after the granting of an authorization, the taxpayer acquires, leases, charters or manages, in their entirety, other vessels that meet the requirements of the regime, they must submit, in the terms set out in the previous sections, a new application referred to to these. The additional authorization will be granted for the temporary period of validity remaining from the initial authorization of the regime.

The application of the tax regime provided for in this chapter will be incompatible, for the same vessel, with the application of the tax incentives for the renewal of the merchant fleet regulated in the fourth Additional Provision of the LIS.

The taxpayer may waive the application of the regime. The waiver will be submitted before the end of the tax period for which it is intended to have effect. During the five years following the previous date, a new application of the regime cannot be requested.

Failure to comply with the requirements established in this regime will imply the cessation of the effects of the corresponding authorization and the loss of all the tax benefits derived from it, and must be paid, together with the quota for the tax period in which the non-compliance, the full installments corresponding to the amounts that should have been paid applying the general regime of this Tax, in all the periods to which the authorization was applicable, without prejudice to late payment interest, surcharges and penalties that, in If applicable, they are appropriate.

When taxpayers with vessels not registered in Spain or in another Member State of the European Union or the European Economic Area, have increased the percentage of the net tonnage of said vessels with respect to the total fleet of the entity covered by the special regime, do not comply the condition established in article 113.3 of the LIS that the average percentage of the net tonnage of ships registered in Spain or in another Member State of the European Union with respect to the total net tonnage referring to the year prior to the moment in which said increase occurs, is maintained during the period of the subsequent 3 years, will imply the loss of the regime for those additional vessels that motivated said increase, proceeding with the regularization established in the previous paragraph that corresponds exclusively to such vessels.

When such increase was motivated by the deregistration of vessels registered in Spain or in another Member State of the European Union, the regularization will correspond to said vessels for all the tax periods in which they had been included in this regime.

Failure to comply with the conditions of the regime will prevent a new application from being made until a minimum of 5 years has passed.