2.4. Electronic Tax Agency

Since its creation, the Tax Agency has been a pioneer in the field of the electronic administration, and the intensive use of new information and communication technologies has been a constant, which has led to it today being an authentic “electronic Tax Agency”.

Over the last years, the digital channel has become the most used channel for relations with taxpayers.

In 2018, we continued with the improvement and expansion of major projects undertaken in 2017 as a result of the new VAT management system based on the Immediate Supply of Information (SII) and that involved the incorporation of artificial intelligence and virtual assistance techniques.

In the last year, a virtual assistant was implemented that allows for interactive, immediate and detailed answers to the questions raised by taxpayers regarding SII and a deadline calculator (calculation tool to obtain the deadline for submitting the records, as well as the period and year of entry in the record books).

In 2018, the virtual assistant was improved and expanded, incorporating the part related to foreign trade, and a new help service was implemented: the locator for the provision of services and deliveries of goods, which serves to indicate where the provision of a service or the delivery of a good is located and taxed in VAT, who must declare the VAT accrued in the operation or how it is declared if it is not subject to the Spanish tax in the territory of application and whether or not the VAT should be charged on the invoice.

In relation to notifications , the entry into force in 2016 of Law 39/2015, of October 1, on the Common Administrative Procedure of Public Administrations, meant that legal entities (including Public Administrations) will be integrated into the Mandatory Electronic Notification (NEO) system, which has meant a potential increase in the group included in NEO and the number of those actually included in the NEO system since its creation; Currently the total census of those included in NEO is 2,601,998.

To promote the use of the electronic registry the presentation of documentation with Cl@ve PIN has been facilitated for all registration procedures in the case of natural persons. This facilitates access for those procedures that had been requiring an electronic certificate and for which it was not sufficient to provide the Secure Verification Code ( CSV ) of the communication received from the Tax Agency.

In 2018, registration submissions using exclusively CSV have also grown (985,577 entries), as well as those made with an electronic certificate or Cl@ve PIN ( 4,688,498 seats).

It is also worth highlighting the modifications that have been necessary to make in the applications in the field of tax certificates due to the entry into force in 2016 of the new regulation of the common administrative procedure, and which imposes the obligation to interact electronically with Public Administrations to new groups, in addition to the progressive extension of social collaboration in the request for tax certificates.

Also the mandatory nature of the new VAT refund system for travelers ( DIVA ) as of 2019 and the integration of central information systems in Customs to facilitate safe access for economic operators have busy with work on electronic administration.

Throughout 2018, the evaluation and review of telematic services has continued to undertake continuous improvements based on the new regulatory provisions and the needs and demands of taxpayers; It is worth highlighting the new developments in relation to the exemption from the Personal Income Tax of maternity/paternity benefits, the improvements in the procedures for requesting deferrals and compensation of debts and the new Large Transfer service Volumes of online information for the presentation of informative statements, among others.

It is also worth mentioning the change in the electronic certificate to be used to identify the Electronic Headquarters and the sub-headquarters and the entry into force of the new Data Protection Regulation in the European Union, which has forced the Tax Agency to review and adapt its procedures to adapt them. to the new regulations.

It is also worth highlighting the promotion and development in some areas of the Tax Agency of infrastructure and computer developments that use the so-called Big Data technology, as well as the use of the biometric signature.

A relevant example of the use by taxpayers of new technologies in their relationship with the Tax Agency is the number of visits to the Tax Agency's web portals, which in 2018 reached the figure of 2,151,172,140, including accesses to the pages intermediates of the Tax Agency's own applications.

For further information, go to section 4.3. of this Report describes the services provided online.