4.2.3. Personal Income Tax Campaign

The Tax Agency intensified its efforts to facilitate the fulfilment of its obligations to more than 20 million citizens required to file a Personal Income Tax return for 2016. To do this, the 2017 Income Tax Campaign saw an increase in human and technical resources to satisfy the demand of assistance and information, and to provide the services mentioned below.

Renta WEB

The Renta WEB program brings together the simplicity of the old draft system and the generality of the PADRE program, allowing for any information or income to be added.

In 2017, once the transition from 2016 has been finalised, when Renta WEB and the old PADRE program were both in use, all Personal Income Taxpayers could use Renta WEB.

In 2017 (2016 fiscal year), a total of 15,054,832 tax returns were filed using this program.

The most relevant figures are shown in the following table:

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. 21,492,880 taxpayers used it in this fiscal year, representing a decrease of 0.73% from 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.

Submission of returns over the Internet

From 2017 onwards, all tax returns are filed online, reaching an overall figure of 19,728,347 tax returns.

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 2017, the average processing time for returns affected by filter in the Income Tax campaign (fiscal year 2016) was 100 days . This time was reduced to 7 days for refunds not affected by the filter.

In the second half of July 2014, the Tax Agency implemented the first implementation phase of a new online procedure, called VERIFICA.

Since then, this procedure has remained definitively in operation. In this procedure, taxpayers are advised to access the file to verify it, given that the VERIFICA system streamlines the outstanding refunds of Personal Income Tax returns when there are certain discrepancies.

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.