4.2.2. Generic assistance programmes

Computer help programs and forms for preparing statements.

The Tax Agency offers taxpayers computer programs to carry out the main taxes' returns. These are used to create most of the statements submitted.

Moreover, the Tax Agency has made some statement forms available to taxpayers in electronic format on the Internet, enabling them to complete their statement directly without needing to download the assistance program, creating a file with the statement so it may be submitted electronically or printed on paper.

Conducting procedures by phone

The Tax Agency has a Call Centre (901 20 03 45) that is operative from Monday to Friday, from 9am to 7pm (to 9pm from April to June and to 3pm in August). Some of the tax assistance services it provides include: managing the draft Personal Income Tax return, maternity deduction, general prior appointment, payment collection (for instance, recording applications for deferral, payment by instalments and offsetting, payment by phone, as well as subscribing to services of the Tax Agency), change of address, information for non-residents, DIT information sheet support and one-stop shop business services.

As a novelty, in this Center the management service for the deduction for large families and people with disabilities (DAFAS) was launched on January 7, 2015, answering 325,795 calls, as well as the information requirements service (ARES) , launched on July 1, 2015, responding to 3,505 information requests.

In total, 1,883,377 calls were received, which was 20.04% less than in 2014.

The Tax Agency also has automated telephone services using voice recognition (901 121 224, usable from Monday to Sunday, 24 hours per day) for very simple procedures such as services to request identification labels, automatic information on refunds, draft confirmation and income certificates.

These automated phone services fielded a total of 1,550,201 calls in 2015.

Appointments

Taxpayers can request an appointment to be assisted at the offices of the Tax Agency, both for the preparation of tax returns, especially of the Personal Income Tax, and to file any information that may have been requested from them in a verification procedure.

Furthermore, in order to improve services for taxpayers and avoid unnecessary delays, pilot tests were run for the new general scheduled appointment system in 2014, and their definite implementation process was established in January 2015.

The general scheduled appointment system allows taxpayers to arrange a day and time to receive assistance at Tax Agency offices regarding collection services (payment and information about debts, freezings, deferments, collection resources and other collection procedures) and management services (information, census management, certificates and modules).

Appointments may be scheduled in person, online or by phone. If scheduled online or by phone, the system sends an email or SMS reminder, if the taxpayer wants one.

Taking into account the extended scope of this service, during 2015 6,699,764 appointments were scheduled (not counting those that were cancelled or modified), representing 96.96% more than the previous year. Of these, 2,312,072 were for appointments arranged as part of the Income Tax Campaign.

In-person assistance at Tax Agency administrations: ATHENAEUM.

The ATENEO program allows a record to be kept of the information services provided to taxpayers in person in all the Tax Agency's Special Offices. According to the application, 15,659,210 taxpayers visited the Tax Agency's offices to obtain information in person in 2015.

Register of authorisations, successions and legal representations

Through this service, taxpayers can carry out any procedure with the Tax Agency through a representative (tax agent) over the internet. As of 31 December 2015, 3,046,383 authorisations for online procedures were in force, 27.3% more than the previous year.

Obtaining certificates

According to the current regulations, there are many scenarios in which citizens are obliged to certify before the Public Administrations, or the bodies and entities dependent on these, that they are up-to-date with their tax obligations and any other tax-related circumstance, for example, their level of income.

In order to manage this service more efficiently and to provide citizens with this certification - without them having to travel to our offices -, the Tax Agency can directly supply the information in the certificates to the Public Administrations requesting it, being equally valid as the certificates themselves.

During 2015, the direct supply of information in this way replaced the issuance of certificates 41,304,446 times, representing a 5.5% increase compared to 2014.

Furthermore, the number of certificates requested directly by citizens in the offices of the Tax Agency during 2015 was 1,449,510, which represents a 7% decrease compared to 2014.