4.4.1. Transfer of information

For years, and increasingly, the Tax Agency has transferred information to other Public Administrations in order for them to carry out their entrusted functions and provide the citizens with the public services for which they are competent in the most efficient way. That information transfer generally requires the prior consent of the interested party.

The tax information provided in this manner to other public organisms, apart from saving citizens millions of trips each year to request tax certificates and reducing procedure times and management costs in the Administrations, has contributed to avoid and fight frauds when obtaining social benefits, subsidies or government aid.

It is worth highlighting the signing in 2019 of numerous information supply and exchange agreements, which have been adapted to Law 40/2015, of October 1, on the Legal Regime of the Public Sector, among which those signed with the Secretary of State for Energy for the processing of the Social Bonus, the Social Institute of the Armed Forces, the General Council of the Legal Profession for free legal assistance procedures, the Official Chamber of Commerce, Industry, Services and Navigation of Spain for transfer to the Official Chambers for the exercise of their public-administrative functions, the General Directorate for the Regulation of Gambling, the State Public Employment Service, as well as many public universities.

As a result of the agreements for the transfer of information to other Administrations, the Tax Agency has responded, during 2019, to nearly 67 million requests for information related to Personal Income Tax (approximately half from the Ministry of Health) and more than 7.2 million certificates of being up to date with tax obligations.

The Tax Agency also provides information to the Courts, Tribunals and members of the Public Prosecutor's Office. During 2019, within the framework stipulated in the Collaboration Agreement with the General Council of the Judiciary (CGPJ) and the Ministry of Justice, the standardized supplies that have been made directly and automatically through the Judicial Neutral Point managed by the CGPJ, have amounted to more than 10.6 million. In addition, 10,703 non-standard requests for information have been processed.

Currently, the tax figures of a statistical nature serve to reduce the sample sizes of the surveys carried out by bodies such as the Spanish Statistical Office, the National Social Security Institute, the Banco de España and the Ministry of Public Works. On the other hand, the use of administrative records of fiscal origin is widely used for statistical operations of great importance to citizens, such as the Active Population Survey, the Labor Cost Survey, the Industrial Survey, the Services Survey, and the Foreign Trade Survey, among others.