Analysis

The 2024 income tax campaign will conclude in the coming days. The campaign began on March 12 with the opening of the application process for a reference number. A week later, tax data was accessible, and on April 2, tax returns could be filed through the app. Rent WEB.

Since the entry into force of the system of Immediate Provision of Information (SII) in July 2017 there is daily sales data, so that the available economic information is closer to the time of the activity. We no longer have to wait for monthly or quarterly data to get an idea of what's happening in the economy.

The recently published Annual Tax Collection Report for 2024 summarizes all the relevant information from last year, once the information forms that complete the data from the periodic declaration forms that were already available at the end of March, when the monthly reports for December, January, and February were published, were received and processed. The annual report is also complemented by notes that provide further details on specific aspects of revenue collection.

The Tax Agency obtains salary information from the annual information return on withholdings from employment and economic activity income (known as Form 190). The information is comprehensive (all employers are required to submit it) and individual (its data is incorporated into the tax records of each taxpayer's income tax return), making it the best possible source for studying the labor market and wages.

In recent years, the information provided by the Tax Agency on leases has increased significantly. Since 2021, with the publication of data for the 2019 financial year, statistical information on housing leases recorded in the personal income tax return has been available. These same data are used to prepare the rental price index for which the Ministry of Housing and Urban Agenda is responsible, which in turn serves to establish the reference rental prices .

In the absence of the latest data to close the year 2024, many of the features that have characterized the year can already be anticipated, both from the point of view of the evolution of the main variables of the situation and of the collection itself.

On 7 November 2024, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) issued a judgment in joined cases C-289/23 and C-305/23, which analysed the compatibility of the reform of Royal Legislative Decree 1/2020, of 5 May, approving the revised text of the Bankruptcy Law (TRLC) operated by Law 16/2022 with Directive (EU) 2019/1023 of the European Parliament and of the Council, of 20 June 2019, on preventive restructuring frameworks, debt discharge and disqualifications, and on measures to increase the efficiency of restructuring, insolvency and debt discharge procedures, and amending Directive (EU) 2017/1132.

The impact of the catastrophe caused by the DANA on the evolution of economic and tax figures is obviously not the most important issue in this tragedy, but it has occupied a prominent place from the first days.

The essential mission of the AEAT is to promote voluntary compliance by citizens with their tax obligations and to prevent and combat fraud. To do so, as an organization, you must provide the information and assistance services necessary to minimize the indirect costs associated with such compliance. Furthermore, these services must be made accessible to citizens so that each person can choose the type of assistance they need (face-to-face or not) and the channel through which they want to interact (telephone, virtual assistant, telephone appointment, chat, in person, etc.). The AEAT strategic plan 2024 - 2027 reorganises the comprehensive information and assistance model, focusing on the citizen, providing them with an equal level of quality, regardless of the channel they choose.

One of the powers that the Tax Agency has to ensure the correct fulfillment of tax obligations is to obtain financial information, as established in article 93 of the General Tax Law (LGT).