Introduction

All transactions carried out by a taxable person must be recorded in the corresponding specific registers of VAT, and the taxable person must submit a single self-assessment for each settlement period covering all his activities, irrespective of the taxation system used and the place where they are carried out.

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

In general, all taxable persons shall submit quarterly self-assessments, except for those registered in the monthly refund register, Large Companies with a volume of operations for VAT purposes in the immediately preceding calendar year in excess of 6,010,121.04 euros and those who apply the special regime for the group of entities.

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

For the purposes of this tax, the following taxpayers are considered to be large companies:

1. Those whose turnover, calculated in accordance with the provisions of the VAT Law, has exceeded 6,010,121.04 euros during the immediately preceding calendar year.

2. Those who have acquired all or part of a business or professional asset, when the sum of their turnover in the immediately preceding calendar year and the turnover in the same period carried out by the transferor of said asset through the use of the transferred asset exceeds 6,010,121.04 euros.

   This provision shall apply as from the time when the transfer takes place, with effect from the day following the end of the settlement period during which the transfer took place.

These taxpayers are assigned to special Management Units, so all their actions related to tax management will be confined 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 Large Taxpayers Delegation.

VAT taxpayers must determine the tax debt by means of self-assessments in accordance with the forms approved by the Minister of Finance and Public Function, and must pay the tax debt in the place, form and by the deadlines set out in this chapter.

Taxpayers who carry out only exempt transactions under Articles 20 (exemptions in domestic transactions) and 26 (exempt intra-Community acquisitions) of the VAT Law are not obliged to file self-assessments, except for entities included in the Special Regime for Groups of Entities, which must in any case file form 322, given the special taxation regime.

On imports of goods, the tax shall be assessed in the manner laid down by customs legislation for customs duties.

However, the collection and payment of the quotas of VAT on importation may be carried out by means of the self-assessment corresponding to the period in which the document containing the settlement made by Customs is received, provided that the importer is a businessman or professional acting as such and has a monthly settlement period.In order to be able to make this deferred payment of import VAT, this option must generally be exercised during the month of November prior to the beginning of the calendar year in which it is to take effect.

Entrepreneurs or professionals who, 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 VAT on importation when the following requirements are met:

• The intrinsic value of the shipment does not exceed EUR 150.

• The goods are not subject to excise duty.

• The final destination of the dispatch or transport of the goods is the territory to which the tax applies.