4.2.3. Personal Income Tax Campaign

The Tax Agency intensified its efforts to facilitate compliance with tax oligations for the more than 20 million citizens obliged to pay Personal Income Tax for the year 2015. To do this, in the Income Tax Campaign carried out in 2016, the Agency increased its human and technical resources to meet the demands of assistance and disclosures and to provide the services described below.

Renta WEB

The 2015 Personal Income Tax campaign was characterised by the generalised use of the new Renta WEB program, which combines the simplicity of applying the draft tax return and the general nature of the PADRE Program, allowing any data or incomes to be added, with the sole exception of income on economic activities. Taxpayers who receive income from economic activities are the only ones who exclusively received tax data and who needed to use the PADRE Program to draw up their tax returns. Everyone else was be able to use Renta WEB.

In 2016 (fiscal year 2015), a total of 9,743,469 tax returns were filed using this program.

The key figures are shown in the following Annex chart:

RENØ service for obtaining the pre-populated tax return and tax information on line

As in previous years, the Agency offers the RENØ service for obtaining a draft tax return and tax information online. This year, 21,649,994 taxpayers have used it, representing an increase of 40.0% over the previous year.

To use it, the taxpayer must enter their ID number and first surname in the E-Office, the amount stated in box 440 of the previous year's tax return or, if applicable, mark the box indicating that it was not filed, and then a mobile phone number and the code of a current account if the return was not filed. In this way, the system automatically sends a text message (SMS) to the mobile phone with the reference number of the draft and the tax data. This reference number enables the taxpayer to consult, modify and confirm the draft. Similarly, and if applicable, it permits the transfer of the tax data to the PADRE Program to complete the return.

Submission of returns over the Internet

More than 15,917,000 of total tax returns filed have been filed online, a filing channel used by 1,232,000 more taxpayers than the previous year and almost 48% more than the 2011 Personal Income Tax campaign, when the measures to promote online filing as the primary filing method began to be strengthened, expediting the procedures for taxpayers and, where applicable, any applicable refunds.

The following table of the Annex shows revenues obtained:

Consultation of the status of the refund procedure. VERIFICA

The Administration has a six months deadline starting from the end of the tax returns' submission deadline, or from the tax returns' submission date if it was submitted outside of the deadline, to carry out the provisional settlement that confirms or modifies the amount of the refund requested by the taxpayer.

The issuing of refunds starts off 48 hours after the beginning of the tax return campaign. The consultation of the status of the return's procedure is available in the Tax Agency's website and in the automatic telephone helpline.

In 2016, the average processing time for returns affected by filter in the Income Tax Campaign (fiscal year 2015) was 97 days . This time is cut down to 9 days for refunds without the filter.

In the second fortnight of July 2014, the Tax Agency implemented the first phase of implementation of a new online procedure known as VERIFICA, which is fully in place in 2016. Taxpayers are advised to log on to their profile to check it out since the VERIFICA system can expedite pending Personal Income Tax refunds.

To access VERIFICA, you need to be registered in the Cl@ve PIN system or have a digital certificate. Once logged on, a screen will appear in which the Tax Agency informs the taxpayer of the existence of incidents in his or her tax return and a possible reduction of his or her initially requested refund.

If the taxpayer goes ahead with the procedure (which they can discontinue if they prefer to opt for the traditional verification system), the process will conclude with the notification of a settlement proposal with the reduced refund.