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Practical manual for Income Tax 2021.

1. Requirements to consider an expense as deductible

Expenses that meet the following requirements are considered tax deductible:

  1. That they are linked to the economic activity carried out. That is, they are specific to the activity.

    The deductibility of expenses is conditioned by the principle of their correlation with income, such that those that are proven to have been incurred in the exercise of the activity, which are related to obtaining income, will be deductible, in the terms provided for in the legal provisions indicated above, while when there is no such link or it is not sufficiently proven, they could not be considered as tax deductible from the economic activity.

  2. That they are adequately justified.

    In accordance with the provisions of article 106.4 of the General Tax Law, deductible expenses and deductions made, when they arise from operations carried out by businessmen or professionals, must be justified, as a priority, by means of the invoice delivered by the businessman or professional who carried out the corresponding operation that meets the requirements set out in the tax regulations.

    However, and without prejudice to the foregoing, invoice does not constitute a privileged means of proof regarding the existence of the operations, so once the Administration has reasonably questioned its effectiveness, it is up to the taxpayer to provide evidence regarding the reality of the operations.

  3. That they are registered in the accounting or registration books that taxpayers who carry out economic activities must keep on a mandatory basis.