Skip to main content
Practical Income Manual 2020.

General taxable base and general taxable base subject to tax

1. Determination of the general taxable base

Regulations: Art. 50.1 and 3 Law Personal Income Tax

The general taxable base is the result of reducing the general taxable base by the amount of the reductions discussed so far in this Chapter.

The reductions are applied to reduce the general tax base, in the order in which they have been discussed, without this being negative as a consequence of such reductions.

For these purposes, the general taxable base can only be negative when the general taxable base is negative because its negative components are greater than the positive ones. In these cases, none of the reductions discussed so far may be applied.

If the general taxable base is negative in the terms previously mentioned, its amount must be offset with the positive general taxable bases obtained in the four following years .

The compensation must be carried out in the maximum amount allowed by each of the following years and without being able to be carried out outside the period referred to in the previous paragraph, through the accumulation of negative general liquidable bases from subsequent years.

Note: the amounts of the negative general taxable bases for the years 2016 to 2019 pending compensation at the beginning of the year, those applied in the declaration and the remainder pending application in future years, as well as the amount of the negative general taxable base for 2020 that remains pending to be offset in the following 4 years, must be recorded in Annex C.3 of the declaration in the section "General negative taxable bases pending to be offset in the following years".

2. Determination of the general taxable base subject to tax

The general taxable base subject to tax is the result of offsetting negative taxable bases from previous years on the amount of the positive balance of the general taxable base for the year, without said result being negative.

These negative general taxable bases can only be those corresponding to the years 2016 to 2019.

Compensation rules in joint taxation

For the purposes of offsetting negative tax bases, the following rules must be taken into account:

  • In the joint taxation regime, the negative general taxable bases realized and not compensated by the taxpayers who are members of the family unit in previous tax periods in which they have paid taxes individually will be compensable, in accordance with the general tax rules.

  • In the case of subsequent individual taxation, the negative general taxable bases determined in joint taxation will be offset exclusively by those taxpayers to whom they correspond in accordance with the rules on individualization of income contained in the Tax Law.