Introduction

All operations carried out by a taxpayer must be recorded in the corresponding specific Registration Books of the VAT, and said taxpayer must submit a single self-assessment in each settlement period covering all of his/her activities, regardless of the taxation regime of those activities and the place where they are carried out.

The period of time covered by each self-assessment is called the settlement period, which may be monthly or quarterly.

As a general rule, all taxpayers will submit quarterly self-assessments, except those registered in the monthly return register, Large Companies with a volume of operations for the purposes of VAT in the immediately preceding calendar year exceeding 6,010,121.04 euros and those that apply the special regime for the group of entities.

Public Administrations, those taxpayers assigned to the Central Delegation of Large Taxpayers or to any of the Large Business Management Units, taxpayers whose settlement period coincides with the calendar month, and entities that have the legal form of a public limited company or limited liability company, are required to submit electronically via the Internet using a recognized electronic certificate.

For the purposes of this tax, the following taxpayers are considered Large Companies:

Those whose volume of operations, calculated in accordance with the provisions of the Law of VAT, would have exceeded 6,010,121.04 euros during the immediately preceding calendar year.
Those who have made the acquisition of all or part of a business or professional asset, when the sum of their volume of operations in the immediately preceding calendar year and the volume of operations that the transferor of said asset had made in the same period through the use of the transferred asset had exceeded 6,010,121.04 euros.

This provision shall apply from the moment in which the said transfer takes place, with effect from the day following the end of the settlement period during which it took place.

Example:

On July 3, year N, company A acquired a global set of assets and liabilities constituting a business unit. In year N-1, the volume of operations of entity A did not exceed 6,010,121.04 euros. In year N-1, the volume of operations of the acquired business exceeded the amount of 6,010,121.04 euros. ( DGT V1215-19).

Entity A will have a monthly settlement period from October 1 of year N. From this date it will be required to keep the registration books at the Electronic Headquarters of the AEAT .

These taxpayers are assigned to special Management units, so all their actions related to tax management will be limited to the scope of the Large Business Management Units, the Tax Assistance and Services Unit or the Tax and Customs Control Unit of the Central Delegation of Large Taxpayers.

The taxpayers of the VAT They must determine the tax debt by means of self-assessments adjusted to the models approved by the Minister of Finance and Public Function, and must pay the tax debt in the place, form and deadlines that will be explained throughout this chapter.

Those taxpayers who exclusively carry out operations exempt from articles 20 (exemptions in domestic operations) and 26 (exempt intra-community acquisitions) of the Law on Taxes are not required to make self-assessments. VAT, except for entities included in the Special Regime for Groups of Entities, which must in all cases submit form 322, taking into account the special nature of the tax regime.

In the case of imports of goods, the tax shall be settled in the manner provided for by customs legislation for tariff duties.

However, the collection and income of the fees of the VAT Importation may be carried out through self-assessment corresponding to the period in which the document containing the settlement made by Customs is received, provided that the importer is a business or professional acting as such and has a monthly settlement period. In order to carry out this deferred payment of VAT on imports, this option must be exercised generally during the month of November prior to the beginning of the calendar year in which it will take effect.

Businessmen or professionals who, while meeting the requirements, do not opt for the application of the import regime, may opt for a special modality for the declaration and payment of the VAT upon import when the following requirements are met:

That the intrinsic value of the shipment does not exceed 150 euros.
That the goods are not subject to special taxes.
That the end-use of the shipment or transportation of the goods is the territory of application of the tax.