4.5.1. Internal control

As a specialised organ of internal control, it has the mission of assessing the internal control system and promoting its development by performing inspections of services and audits on the Agency's central and territorial organs.

Inspection activities:

The inspection actions of the Internal Audit Service are subject to the planning principle established in accordance with the regulations for the General Inspectorate, drawing up on an annual basis the Action Plan of the Inspection of Services, which is approved by the President of the Tax Agency. The Plan is structured in 35 programs: on the one hand, a set of programmes linked to activities that are common to several areas and/or significant for the purpose of improving the results of the Tax Agency and, on the other, a series of programmes linked to managing the Tax Agency's risks, monitoring the regional bodies and to analysing and controlling sensitive areas, security and institutional cooperation.

As a result of these inspection actions of services, the Internal Audit Service draws up reports which contain recommendations for the Tax Agency's Departments (motions) and the Management of the Units audited (proposals).

In 2020, 91 reports on management results were prepared, which involved the issuance of 7 motions and 192 proposals. In 2019, 89 reports, 7 motions and 214 proposals were prepared.

In 2020, the Internal Audit Service has dedicated part of its actions to addressing the impact of the pandemic. In particular, it has systematically recorded the actions committed by the organization to mitigate unexpected risks, in order to strengthen business continuity processes. Likewise, the Internal Audit Service has performed consulting functions to ensure remote access to information systems and the extension of teleworking.

Permanent monitoring and evaluation of the internal control systems management, risks and conducts

The Internal Audit Service carries out this monitoring and evaluation via the broadest cooperation with the Departments and Central Services and with the various Territorial Delegations.

The institutional cooperation with the various Departments is also carried out through the work of the various Sectorial Security and Control Commissions created in the Tax Agency for the following areas or sectors: Tax Management, Financial and Tax Inspection, Collection, Customs and Excise Duties and Customs Surveillance, General Security and Economic Management and Tax Computing, with an Inspector of Services of the Internal Audit Service holding the Vice-presidency of each of the six Committees. As a novelty, this year the General Security and Economic Management Commission has been split into two, according to the Resolution of the Presidency of the Tax Agency of January 16, 2020 (BOE of January 31).

During 2020, the Tax Agency has undergone a self-assessment using the TADAT methodology, property of the IMF, which allows evaluating the solidity of the fundamental components of a country's tax administration system and its level of maturity in the context of a good international practice. The evaluation team was made up of the Director of the SAI and several Service Inspectors. The results have been published on the Agency's website.