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Practical Income Manual 2023.

Not derived from transfers of assets

Regulations: Art. 34.1.b) Law Personal Income Tax

In cases other than onerous or lucrative transfer, the amount of the capital gain or loss will be the market value of the assets or proportional parts , where applicable.

The incorporation of assets or rights to the taxpayer's assets that do not derive from a prior transfer must be included within this category of capital gains, such as, for example, the receipt of certain subsidies or aid for the acquisition or rehabilitation of the habitual residence, aid for rent, the aid of 200 euros for people with a low level of income and assets, the Youth Cultural Bonus, those derived from the forestry exploitation of neighbors in public forests, the interests of a compensatory nature caused by the delay in the fulfillment of an obligation , including the payment of salaries, as well as prizes obtained by participating in games, contests, raffles or random combinations.

Note:

New aid of 200 euros for individuals with low levels of income and assets

Article 31 of Royal Decree-Law 11/2022, of June 25, by which certain measures are adopted and extended to respond to the economic and social consequences of the war in Ukraine, to address situations of social vulnerability and economic, and for the economic and social recovery of the island of La Palma, introduced with the purpose of alleviating the detrimental effect on prices caused by the energy crisis derived from the invasion of Ukraine, an aid called "Hotline of aid to people individuals with a low level of income and assets".

Well, in an analogous way, article 74 of Royal Decree-Law 20/2022, of December 27, on response measures to the economic and social consequences of the War in Ukraine and support for reconstruction of the island of La Palma and other situations of vulnerability ( BOE December 28) establishes an extraordinary measure consisting of a new payment of 200 euros .

This is a single payment aid, the amount of which amounts to 200 euros, and of which the beneficiaries are natural persons who carry out an activity on their own or as an employee for which they are registered in the corresponding Security regime. Social or mutual society, or were unemployed registered in the employment office, or beneficiaries or not of the unemployment benefit or subsidy, provided that in 2022 they had received income less than 27,000 euros per year, and had assets less than 75,000 euros per year at 31 December 2022.

The calculation of income and assets to obtain the aid will be carried out jointly, considering said amounts jointly with your spouse or de facto partner registered in the registry of de facto unions of the respective Community or Autonomous City, with those people who could give the right to apply the minimum for descendants regulated in the Personal Income Tax Law , as well as with ascendants up to the second degree by direct line who live at the same address. To determine these circumstances, the situation existing as of December 31, 2022 will be taken into account.

This aid is considered capital gain for its beneficiaries.

Young cultural bonus:

Law 22/2021, of December 28, on the General State Budgets for the year 2022 ( BOE of December 29) created, with effect from January 1, 2022, the so-called “ Youth Cultural Bonus”, aimed at facilitating young people's access to culture. 

This is aid for the acquisition of cultural products and services offered by entities that adhere to the program, the maximum amount of which amounts to 400 euros per beneficiary, and whose temporal scope of application has been extended, with indefinite validity, by the Provision Additional one hundred and fourth of Law 31/2022, of December 23, on the General State Budgets for the year 2023 ( BOE of December 24), the beneficiaries of which are those young people who have completed 18 years old during the year 2023 and meet the requirements demanded by Royal Decree 191/2023, of March 21, which establishes the regulatory rules of the Young Cultural Bonus ( BOE of 22 of March).

The amount is granted only once to each beneficiary and must be used within a maximum period of one year from the date of its granting. The payment of the amount granted is made, in a single payment, in the format of virtual prepaid cards. After the aforementioned period of 1 year, the Youth Cultural Bonus is automatically deactivated, and the collaborating entity proceeds to refund the amounts not enjoyed.

For this reason, only the monetary amount of the aid that has been effectively used in the acquisition of cultural products and services gives rise to a capital gain for the people who have benefited from it , and it will be allocated to the respective tax period in which the eligible cultural products, services and activities were acquired, since this is when it is understood that the collection of the subsidy has occurred.

Specific assumptions:

In the case of subsidies the amount of said gain will be the monetary amount of the subsidy.

In relation to the awards it is worth distinguishing:

  • Cash prizes. These prizes are subject to withholding, so the amount countable as capital gain will consist of the entire prize without deducting the withholding borne, which will be declared as such in the section of the declaration corresponding to withholdings and other payments on account.

  • Prizes in kind. These prizes are subject to deposit on account, so the total computable amount will be composed of the sum of the valuation of the prize received, which will be made at its market value, plus the deposit on account, unless the latter had been passed on to the taxpayer.

In the case of judicial costs two situations must be distinguished:

  1. Taxpayer obliged—by court ruling—to pay the legal defense expenses incurred by the winning party in the process.

    This is a capital loss that will be imputed in the tax period in which the conviction becomes final, since it is in said tax period when the capital alteration that gives rise to it takes place. It is integrated into the general tax base in the manner and with the limits established in article 48 of the Personal Income Tax Law .

  2. Taxpayer who, as the winner of a judicial procedure, receives a certain amount for the conviction of the opposing party to pay legal costs.

    In this case, to determine the capital gain that the ruling of the opposing party to pay legal costs may mean for the winner of the lawsuit, the winning litigant may deduct from the amount received as costs the expenses incurred as a result of the lawsuit, deductible amount that may reach a maximum of the amount you receive, without exceeding it. Therefore, if the amount of the costs order corresponds to the expenses incurred—qualifiable as costs—there will not have been a capital gain for the consultant with respect to the costs. See the Resolution of the TEAC of June 1, 2020, Claim number 00/06582/2019 , relapse in appeal for the unification of criteria .

In the case of late payment interest, the recent Supreme Court Ruling no. 24/2023, of January 12, relapsed in cassation appeal no. 2059/2020 ( RED : STS 121/2023), which expressly corrects the criteria established by said Court in a previous ruling of December 3, 2020 (cassation appeal no. 7763/2019) on the same question of cassational interest, establishes as doctrine: "the late payment interest paid by the Tax Agency when making a return of undue income is subject to and not exempt from Personal Income Tax , constituting a capital gain that constitutes general income, in accordance with the provisions in article 46.b) of the Personal Income Tax Law, interpreted sensu contrari".

This criterion is also applicable to late payment interest paid by other Administrations, entities or subjects other than the Tax Agency and, in general, to compensatory interest received by taxpayers that, after the ruling of the Supreme Court, are classified as capital gain. to be integrated into the general tax base because, as the Court affirms, they have not been revealed on the occasion of the transfer of assets.

The existence of two successive and opposing criteria of the Supreme Court on the same question of cassational interest raises a problem directly related to the principle of protection of legitimate expectations, a principle of jurisprudential creation whose effectiveness depends on the specific circumstances of each case. In this sense, the actions of a taxpayer who, following the ruling of the Supreme Court of December 3, 2020 (cassation appeal no. 7763/2019), had formulated his self-assessment for Personal Income Tax without incorporating late payment interest paid by a Tax Administration as a result of a return of undue income, it would be protected by the principle of protection of legitimate expectations if, subsequently, after the publication of the Supreme Court ruling of January 12, 2023 (appeal no. 2059/2020) that considers said interests subject to tax, the Tax Administration intended to regularize its tax situation with the support of this last ruling, since past situations cannot be regularized, to the detriment of the taxpayer, in which he applied in his self-assessment the jurisprudential criterion established in the ruling of December 3, 2020, a criterion that, being the one in force at the time of submission of his self-assessment, was the criterion that, in accordance with the doctrine of this Central Court, was binding on the Tax Administration. See the Resolutions of TEAC of May 29, 2023, resources no. 00-02478-2022 and 00-08937-2022, relapsed into two extraordinary appeals for the unification of criteria.

Note: The refund, in cash or through other compensation measures, of the amounts previously paid to financial entities as interest for the application of clauses will not be integrated into the tax base of Tax of limitation of interest rates on loans (the so-called floor clause), along with their corresponding compensatory interests, derived both from agreements entered into with financial entities and from compliance with judgments or arbitration awards.