Tax rates

Liability may be joint and several or subsidiary.

Joint and several liability is that which, in order to demand the debts and penalties, if any, pending from the person responsible, does not require justification of the total or partial insolvency of the main debtor (declaration of bankruptcy), the Administration being able to approach the presumed jointly and severally liable party at any time, once the deadline for payment in the voluntary period of the main debtor has elapsed.

 Among the different cases of joint and several liability regulated in our legislation, the most common are those established in Article 42 of Law 58/2003 (LGT), being liable:  

• Those who cause or actively collaborate in the commission of a tax offence.

• The participants or co-owners of the estate, community property and other entities which, lacking legal personality, constitute an economic unit or a separate estate liable to taxation.

• Those who succeed for any reason in the ownership or exercise of holdings or economic activities, for the tax obligations contracted by the previous owner and derived from their exercise. 

• Those who cause or collaborate in the concealment or transfer of assets or rights of the person liable to pay with the aim of preventing the tax authorities from acting. 

• Those who, through fault or negligence, fail to comply with seizure orders. 

• Those who, with knowledge of the seizure, the precautionary measure or the constitution of the guarantee, collaborate or consent to the lifting of the seized assets or rights, or of those assets or rights on which the precautionary measure or the guarantee has been constituted. 

• The persons or entities trustees of the debtor's assets who, once they have received notification of the seizure, collaborate or consent to the lifting of the seizure. 

Liability may be joint and several or subsidiary.

Subsidiary liability is that which, in order to demand the debts and penalties, if any, pending from the person responsible, requires the justification of the total or partial insolvency of the main debtor and of those jointly and severally liable, if any (declaration of bankruptcy).

 Among the different cases of subsidiary liability regulated in our legislation, the most common are those established in Article 43 of Law 58/2003 (LGT), being liable:

•  The de jure or de facto administrators of legal persons who, having committed tax offences, have not carried out the necessary acts within their competence to comply with the tax obligations and duties, have consented to the non-compliance by those who report to them or have adopted agreements that made the offences possible.

• The de jure or de facto administrators of legal persons who have ceased their activities, for the tax obligations accrued by them that are pending at the time of cessation, provided that they have not taken the necessary steps for their payment or have adopted agreements or taken measures that have caused the non-payment.

• The members of the bankruptcy administration and the liquidators of companies and entities in general who have not taken the necessary steps to ensure full compliance with the tax obligations accrued prior to said situations and attributable to the respective taxpayers.

• Acquirers of goods subject by law to the payment of the tax debt.

• Customs representatives when acting in the name and on behalf of their principals.

• Persons or entities who contract or subcontract the execution of works or the provision of services corresponding to their main economic activity, for tax obligations regarding taxes which have to be passed on or withholdings which have to be made from workers, professionals or other employers in the part corresponding to the works or services contracted or subcontracted.

• Persons or entities which have effective control, total or partial, direct or indirect, of legal persons or in which there is a common governing will with legal persons.

• Persons or entities over which the taxpayers have effective control, in whole or in part, or in which there is a common governing will with the said taxpayers.

• The de jure or de facto administrators of legal persons obliged to make the tax return and payment of tax debts deriving from taxes to be passed on or amounts to be withheld from workers, professionals or other employers.

 

Succession may be of natural persons, when a natural person dies, or of legal persons or non-personal entities when the legal personality is extinguished or the non-personal entity is dissolved.