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.

Last year, a virtual assistant was implemented that allows for interactive, immediate and detailed responses to questions raised by taxpayers regarding SII and a deadline calculator (a calculation tool to obtain the deadline for submitting records, as well as the period and year for annotation in the registration books).

In 2018, the virtual assistant has been improved and expanded to include the section related to foreign trade and a new help service has been 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 the 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) were integrated into the mandatory electronic notification system (NEO), 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.

In order to promote the use of the electronic registry the submission of documentation with Cl@ve PIN has been made easier for all registration procedures in the case of individuals. This facilitates access for those procedures that previously required an electronic certificate and for which it was not sufficient to provide the Secure Verification Code ( CSV ) from the communication received from the Tax Agency.

In 2018, the number of submissions to the registry using only CSV (985,577 entries) has also increased, as well as those made with an electronic certificate or Cl@ve PIN (4,688,498 entries).

It is also worth highlighting the changes that have had to be made to applications in the field of tax certificates due to the entry into force in 2016 of the new regulation of the common administrative procedure, which imposes the obligation to interact electronically with the Public Administrations on new groups, in addition to the progressive extension of social collaboration in the application 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 in order to undertake continuous improvements based on new regulatory provisions and the needs and demands of taxpayers; It is worth highlighting the new developments in relation to the exemption from Personal Income Tax for maternity/paternity benefits, the improvements in the procedures for requesting deferrals and offsetting debts and the new online service for the Transmission of Large Volumes of Information for the submission of information returns, 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 IT infrastructures and developments that use the so-called Big Data technology, as well as the use of biometric signatures.

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

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