4.1.3. Collection phase

The Tax Agency carried out a wide range of activities cast leading to the collection of the tax debts and penalties deriving from the application of the state's tax and customs system, in addition to those deriving from the other public resources whose management it assumes pursuant to an Act or Agreement.

In these activities, in both the voluntary and enforcement periods, it is necessary to use all the mechanisms provided by the legal system for enforced collection.

In 2015, the Tax Agency has continued to intensify the most qualified operations for the fight against fraud in the tax collection phase.

Evolution of outstanding debt

The collection management of tax debts consists in the exercise of administrative functions leading to collection. This includes a series of activities such as wealth investigation, the adoption of precautionary measures, the execution of liability assignment agreements and all those provided for in the General Tax Collection Regulations, subject to the periods established in the tax legislation.

Until the tax debts are extinguished, by payment, compensation or the other legally provided means, they are considered “outstanding.” However, within the outstanding amounts it is necessary to distinguish between those in which there are cases of suspension, deferral or insolvency proceedings, which are not due and payable while they remain in that situation, from all the other outstanding amounts, with regard to which the collection organs deploy all the faculties provided for in the legal system.

The amount outstanding at the end of each year is the result of adding to the amount outstanding at the start of that year the outstanding debts originated in the current year, called “annual debit," and subtracting any cancellations made in the year, either for revenue obtained as a consequence of collection activities or for other legally established causes.

The outstanding debt as of 31 December 2015 was 49,272 million euros. In contrast with the outstanding debt at the end of 2014 (50,226 million) it has gone down by 2%.

The following tables in the Annex show, respectively, the evolution of the outstanding debt at the end of each of the years included in the period 1996-2015 and the breakdown of the outstanding debt:

With regard to the debt in enforcement period, during 2015, the total amount of the debts subject to surcharge was 10,396.2 million euros. Debts arising from the application of the taxes which are under the Tax Agency's remit amounted to 7,600.1 million euros and those of other entities to 2,796.1 million euros. Furthermore, debt amounting to 11,505.5 million euros was cancelled.

The principal magnitudes relating to the collection phase are shown in the tables listed below in the Annex:

Debts arising from the application of the taxes which are under the Tax Agency's remit

Debts arising from the application of taxes which are the Tax Agency's remit subject to surcharge in 2015 amounted to 7,600.1 million euros, 73% of the total. This debt comes both from settlements carried out by the Tax Agency and from self-assessments filed by taxpayers with no payment or with deferrals in voluntary periods that went unpaid.  

As in previous years, in 2015 the Tax Agency has continued to bolster the most qualified tax collection operations in order to collect tax debts, achieving executor incomes amounting to 6,759 million euros. Following on from this, and in order to detect possible fictitious insolvencies, 22,471 investigations of financial transactions have been carried out, 28.2% more than the previous year and five times more than the number of operations of this kind carried out in 2012.

Furthermore, and for the purpose of preventing cases of tunneling, 3,785 precautionary measures have been adopted, of which practically half have been developed within the framework of the new anti-fraud tools offered by Act 7/2012. In addition, and with the same goal of expanding the possibilities for collecting the debts owed, the number of liability assignment agreements (assignment to third parties other than the principal debtor) has increased by 8.7%, reaching 16,719 operations.

The following table of the Appendix shows the results obtained in 2014 and 2015 and their variation rate:

Management of debt of other entities

In 2015, the Tax Agency managed debts during the enforcement period proceeding from 168 external bodies (Ministerial Departments, Autonomous Bodies, Autonomous Communities, Local Entities and other public entities).

The largest percentage of debt to be managed corresponds to Ministerial Departments (58.1%), followed by Autonomous Community regions (23.5%) and Regional Bodies (16.8%).

In 2015, the amount of debt to which a surcharge applied amounted to 2,796.1 million euros, which must be added to the outstanding debt at 31 December 2014 with a value of 4,539.8 million euros.