4.2.3. Support for paying tax liabilities

Payment in financial institutions

In order to facilitate the payment of taxes, the tax legislation empowers the Tax Agency to authorise credit institutions who request this to act as collaborating bodies in tax collection. At 31 December 2014, 132 such institutions were authorised to act as collaborating bodies in tax collection management.

The total amount collected through these collaborating bodies reached 220,717 million euros in 2014, making it the most common system of payment.

During the 2014 tax year, certain verification actions were carried out on 57 institutions (four of which were controlled from an integral perspective). Likewise, inspections were conducted in relation to 1,397 attachment actions on bank accounts corresponding to 12 institutions, with the aim of verifying the results of the obstacles reported by them to the Tax Agency.

Deferment and payment by instalments

The taxpayers can request the deferral and fractioning of their debts when temporary treasury problems obstruct the payment.

In 2014 there was a decrease in both the number of applications for payment deferral and splitting and the amount requested compared to 2013.

Thus, 1,703,523 applications were submitted for an amount of 11,764.94 million euros, that is to say, 18% less than in 2013 in number and 28% less in amount.

The tables listed below and contained in the Annex show the distribution of the applications for deferral and splitting according to the amount of the debts:

More than 96% of the applications received correspond to debts of less than €18,000, although they only represent 39% of the total requested amount. In these deferments, the regulations exempts the debtor of the general obligation of providing proof of the payment.

In 2014, 1,512,040 agreements for deferrals and splittings were adopted, for a total of 8,853.8 million euros.

91% of these agreements corresponded to debts of amounts lower than €18,000, which are subject to computerised management to streamline the procedure (MPR) and which are exempt from submission of guarantees under the current regulations.

The tables and graphs contained in the Annex and referred to below show the principal magnitudes in this respect: