Raw Tobacco Operators Register

These rules affect natural or legal persons, or entities with no legal personality, who undertake economic or commercial activities with raw tobacco located or circulating in Spain.

Raw tobacco, for the purposes of these regulations, includes the leaves and other natural parts of the tobacco plant after curing or drying, where these are not considered as manufactured tobacco based on the meaning used in the Excise Taxes (Tax on Tobacco Products).Under no circumstances does this include live plant or cut plant that has not been cured or dried.

As regards tobacco leaf farmers cure or dry the leaves and other natural parts of the tobacco plant indirectly through agricultural processing undertakings, agricultural cooperative societies or producer organisations, the processing undertakings, cooperative societies, organisations and other entities or natural or legal persons who carry out these activities on behalf of the farmers are considered to be raw tobacco operators.

All raw tobacco producers who directly perform curing or drying activities must register.

Transporters employed by others, notwithstanding the other specific obligations set out in these control rules, shall not be registered as raw tobacco operators.

All operators undertaking economic or commercial activities, including but not limited to the manufacture, initially processing, import, export, acquisition or intra-Community shipment of raw tobacco located or circulating in Spain must be entered in this Register prior to the start of their activity.

Natural or legal persons, or entities with no legal personality, not established in Spain must appoint a representative whose registered address is located in Spain to fulfil this obligation, who must be registered in this Register.

A single Register will be used for the whole of Spain, located at the e-Office of the Tax Agency, the public body responsible for its management and maintenance.

If you are an operator that is required to register, you must register at the Tax Agency's e-Office by filling in the electronic form provided to this end.

You may also have a representative whose registered address is located in Spain to process your application; in this case, the procedures relating to the power of attorney must be carried out electronically through the e-Office of the Tax Agency, as well as by the persons or entities that, pursuant to the provisions of Article 92 of Law 58/2003, of 17 December, on General Taxation, are considered social collaborators in the enforcement of taxes and comply with the requirements and conditions established to this end under the regulations in force at any given time.

Entry in the Raw Tobacco Operators Register may only be processed through the Tax Agency's e-Office using the form provided to this end, introducing the following information:

1. Details identifying the raw tobacco operator, whether or not they are established in Spain, with details of their registered address.
2. Identification details of the representative in Spain for the non-resident operator identified in point (a), including their registered address.
3. Detailed description of the economic or commercial activities to be performed involving raw tobacco (producer, wholesale distributor, first processing company, tobacco processing factory, etc.).
4. Use and destination of raw tobacco.
5. Full address of each of the establishments where these activities are undertaken or the raw tobacco storage premises, as applicable.(If a single raw tobacco operator has two or more establishments or storage premises, the full address of each establishment or storage premises shall be included.)

Remember that any event or circumstance leading to the amendment of the data provided at the time of initial registration shall be communicated by the operator or their representatives in Spain via the Tax Agency’s e-Office, as soon as they are made aware of this.

All applicants for registration must be registered in the Tax Register of business persons, professionals and withholders under the heading corresponding to the activity to be carried out, and they must be up to date in terms of compliance with their tax obligations.

In the case of operators required to comply with the licensing or registration duties established in the tobacco market regulations, this compliance shall be a requirement for entry in this Raw Tobacco Operators Register.

These requirements do not have to be accredited at the time of their entry into the Register, but will be verified a posteriori by the control bodies of the Tax Agency.

Entry in the Raw Tobacco Operators Register will be accompanied by the assignment of a Raw Tobacco Operator Code (COTC), which identifies the parties entered into this Register.

The code consists of thirteen alphanumeric characters formed as follows:

1. The first two letters, ES, identify Spain.

2. The following two numbers identify the area of the province or the autonomous city corresponding to the registered address of the operator or their representative in Spain for operators not established in Spain.

3. The fifth, sixth and seventh characters shall consist of the letters OTC, a Spanish acronym for “Raw Tobacco Operator".

4. The eighth to twelfth characters shall be sequential numbers identifying the operators in the Register in chronological order.

5. The last character, the thirteenth, shall be an upper case control letter.

At any time, registered operators, or their representatives in Spain, can ask to be removed from the Raw Tobacco Operators Register, through the Tax Agency's e-Office; consequently, the operator code will cease to have any effect from the date of removal.

Furthermore, should the Tax Agency subsequently identify that the data declared in the Raw Tobacco Operators Register is inaccurate or false, the registered operators or representatives shall be removed ex officio, having heard the interested party; this will involve the termination of the operator code granted effective the date of removal, notwithstanding any sanctions for the possible commission of the breach as provided for in Law 11/2021.

Operators or representatives who have effectively ceased their raw tobacco activity for a period of more than one year shall also be removed ex officio.