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VAT practical manual 2022.

When you can deduct

The right to deduct arises:

  1. The general rule is that the right to deduct arises when the deductible installments are accrued, as long as the supporting document for the operation is available.

  2. As special rules the following are established:

    1. In operations assimilated to imports whose declarations are submitted on time: at the end of the period to which the declarations refer, being deductible the VAT fees accrued for carrying out said operations in the model itself, as established in the 2nd paragraph of the article 73.3 of the VAT Regulations.

    2. In occasional deliveries of new means of transport: when delivery is made.

    3. In the case of deliveries of art objects, antiques and collectibles to which the general tax regime applies: when the tax corresponding to the deliveries of said goods made by the reseller is accrued.

    4. In the special regime of the cash criterion: at the time of total or partial payment of the price for the amounts actually paid, or on December 31 of the year immediately following the year in which the operation was carried out if payment has not occurred.

    5. In the operations carried out to carry out the trip that benefits the traveler (article 146 of the VAT Law) that are intended to carry out an operation to which the regime does not apply special for travel agencies (article 147 of the VAT Law): at the time in which the Tax corresponding to said operation is accrued.

The right to deduction expires within a period of 4 years from its birth.

Example:

A businessman locates two invoices that he had lost, one corresponding to a service provided in 2015 and another for a purchase of goods received in 2019.

The fee paid for the service is not deductible because more than 4 years have passed since it was carried out. The fee incurred in the acquisition of the goods can be deducted in the next self-assessment submitted because 4 years have not passed since the goods were made available to the buyer.

If the origin or amount of the deduction is pending the resolution of a dispute through administrative or jurisdictional means, the expiration period begins to be computed from the date on which the resolution or sentence is firm.