Skip to main content
Practical manual for Income Tax 2020.

Procedure for suspending the payment of personal income tax debt without late payment interest

Regulations: Art. 97.6 Law IRPF and 62.1 Regulation

Marriages that are not legally separated and choose to pay taxes individually and in which one of the returns results in a payment and the other with a right to a refund, may avail themselves of this procedure by which the taxpayer whose return is positive can request the suspension of the payment of his tax debt, without late payment interest, in the maximum amount allowed by the amount of the refund resulting from the return of his spouse, on condition that the latter waives the collection of the same in an amount equal to the amount of the debt whose suspension has been requested by the former.

The suspension will be provisional until the tax authorities recognise the right to a refund in favour of the spouse as a result of the amount of the same.

Requirements for obtaining provisional suspension

  1. The taxpayer whose declaration results in a refund must waive the collection of the refund up to the amount of the debt whose suspension has been requested by his/her spouse, also accepting that the amount of the waiver be applied to the payment of said debt.
  2. Both declarations, that of the taxpayer requesting the suspension and that of the spouse waiving the refund, must correspond to the same tax period and must be submitted simultaneously and jointly, within the established deadline.
  3. Neither spouse may be covered by the tax current account system regulated in articles 138 to 140 of the General Regulations on actions and procedures for tax management and inspection and the development of common rules for procedures for the application of taxes, approved by Royal Decree 1065/2007, of July 27 ( BOE of September 5).
  4. Both spouses must be up to date with their tax obligations, in accordance with the terms set forth in article 18 of the Regulations of Law 38/2003, of November 17, General Subsidies, approved by Royal Decree 887/2006, of July 21 ( BOE of the 25th).

How to request suspension

To request the suspension, the spouse whose declaration is to be filed must complete and sign the corresponding section of his or her declaration. In addition, when filling out the income document (form 100), you must mark with an "X" the box [7] in the "Settlement" section.

Likewise, the spouse whose declaration is subject to a refund must complete and sign the corresponding section of his/her declaration, and must also mark with an "X" box [7] in the "Settlement" section of his/her payment or refund document (form 100).

Possibility of domiciliating the payment of the non-suspended part of the tax debt

If the positive result of the declaration is greater than the amount for which suspension is requested, payment of the excess may be divided into two installments, 60 and 40 percent, respectively, and payment of each of these installments may also be deposited into an account, in accordance with the general procedure established in the previous section for payment of IRPF .

Effects of unfounded requests for suspension

When suspension is not applicable due to failure to meet the above-mentioned requirements, the Administration will carry out a provisional liquidation to the taxpayer who requested it for the amount of the debt that is the subject of the request together with the late payment interest calculated from the date of expiration of the period established for filing the declaration until the date of the aforementioned provisional liquidation.

Effects on the suspended debt of the recognition of the right to reimbursement in favor of the spouse

  1. If the recognised refund is equal to the suspended debt, the latter will be completely extinguished, as will the right to the refund.
  2. If the recognised refund is greater than the suspended debt, the latter will be declared fully extinguished and the Administration will proceed to return the difference between both amounts.

  3. If the recognised refund is less than the suspended debt, the latter will be declared extinguished in the concurrent part, with the Administration carrying out a provisional liquidation to the spouse who requested the suspension for the amount of the difference together with the late payment interest calculated from the date of expiration of the period established to present the declaration until the date of the aforementioned provisional liquidation.

Important: By express legal provision, it shall be deemed that there is no lucrative transfer for tax purposes between spouses for the amount that, proceeding from the refund of one of them, is applied to the payment of the debt of the other.