2022

On March 22, 2022, the subscribers were sent the first edition of the newsletter de la Agencia Tributaria. In the analysis of that edition we explained to you that the objective of this newsletter The weekly newsletter was to summarise the main new features added to the Tax Agency's electronic headquarters in the previous days and to include the corresponding links so that anyone who wanted to could access the complete information.

The growing outward projection of the Tax Agency gives increasing importance to the scope of its international relations. The Tax Agency maintains permanent channels of communication, collaboration and mutual assistance with other tax authorities and international organisations, both in Europe and Latin America and in other geographical areas.

Law 11/2021, of July 9, on measures to prevent and combat tax fraud, has introduced an important modification in the field of sanctions derived from the application of the special regime for the group of Value Added Tax entities. ( VAT ), or VAT entity regime.

Article 99.9 of the General Tax Law recently introduced by Royal Decree-Law 22/2020, of June 16, and its materialization for the inspection procedure in article 151.1.e) LGT , regulating the place of inspection actions, has come to strengthen, with all the coverage and procedural guarantees, a technological development that brings with it benefits in terms of assistance, provision and streamlining of services and improvement of administration-administered relations.

The mission of the Tax Agency is to promote and ensure compliance with the tax system in an equitable manner, favouring the development of Spanish society. To achieve this, the Tax Agency considers it essential to promote voluntary compliance with tax obligations, and it devotes a large part of its efforts and innovations to this end.

In the most recent case law of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) on tax matters, we find, with increasing frequency, rulings in which the Court appeals to general principles of tax law in addition to the text of the European standard itself.

The Customs Surveillance Service ( SVA ) is an institution traditionally linked to the fight against tobacco smuggling. Thus, its historical origins are found in the bodies that, depending on or under the supervision of the Royal Treasury, had the aforementioned mission with various names, structures and organic affiliations: Safekeeping (maritime and land), Special Land and Maritime Surveillance Service of the Tobacco Leasing Company, Special Land and Maritime Surveillance Service of Tabacalera SA or Special Fiscal Surveillance Service. It received its current name in 1982 following the approval of Royal Decree 319/1982 of 12 February, which restructured and assigned the Customs Surveillance Service directly to the Ministry of Finance through the General Directorate of Customs and Special Taxes.

Tax audit and investigation actions, including judicial assistance actions in which Tax Agency personnel participate, must be adapted to the situation of the economic sectors to which they are directed. In recent years, economic activities have been characterized by their high level of computerization.

The seventh and final indicator foreseen in the Strategic Plan of the Tax Agency 2020-2023 to measure the evolution of the results of its actions in the medium term is the reduction of the interest paid.

The Tax Agency is committed to applying the tax system in a general and fair manner to all taxpayers, although its actions sometimes generate conflict, that is, they cause taxpayers to file appeals or claims.

The Tax Agency, in its mission to promote and ensure compliance with the tax system, must take the necessary actions to guarantee and facilitate the payment of tax debts and, where appropriate, carry out the executive actions that are necessary for the collection of debts, tax or not, whose management is entrusted to it. 

The strategic objective of the Tax Agency is to improve voluntary compliance with tax obligations; To achieve this, it uses a combination of measures of a wide range such as civic-tax education, information and assistance, prevention of tax and customs fraud, a posteriori control actions, the promotion of anti-fraud regulatory changes, agreements with other organizations, cooperative relations, etc.

The central axis that guides the actions of the Tax Agency is the improvement of compliance in the voluntary period, increasing the induced effect of the actions of the Tax Agency and decreasing the weight of the quantitative results obtained in the control activities.

The second of the indicators provided for in the Strategic Plan to measure and evaluate the medium-term evolution of voluntary compliance with tax obligations is the measurement of induced effects.

The strategic objective of the Tax Agency is to improve voluntary compliance with tax obligations; To achieve this, it uses a combination of measures of a wide range of nature, ranging from civic-tax education, information and assistance, prevention of tax and customs fraud, a posteriori control actions, the promotion of anti-fraud regulatory changes, agreements with other organizations, cooperative relations, etc.

By Law 11/2021, of July 9, known in an abbreviated form as "on measures to prevent and combat tax fraud", a new letter j) is added to article 29.2 of the General Tax Law (LGT), which establishes the obligation, for producers, marketers and users, that the computer or electronic systems and programs that support the accounting, invoicing or management processes of those who carry out economic activities, guarantee the integrity, conservation, accessibility, legibility, traceability and unalterability of the records, without interpolations, omissions or alterations for which the proper annotation is not left in the systems themselves. Furthermore, in accordance with said regulation, a specific sanctioning regime is established in article 201 bis of the aforementioned Law, derived from the mere production of these systems or programs, or the possession of the same without the appropriate certification.

The use of cash is necessary in any economy and essential for small transactions. However, the use of cash to pay large amounts is usually not justified. In these cases, reasons of convenience and, of course, security make it more appropriate to use other means of payment such as transfers, checks, credit or debit cards, etc. In these high-value transactions, cash may be used not for reasons of efficiency, but because it is an opaque means of payment that leaves no trace. The use of cash in such transactions is a well-known mechanism, both domestically and internationally, for money laundering and to avoid the correct taxation of income obtained through direct taxation and VAT accrued in the indirect.

This year 2022 marks 30 years since the establishment of the State Tax Administration Agency (Tax Agency). Trying to imagine the path to follow in the next 30 years is not only complex, but does not seem appropriate, since the priorities, challenges, opportunities and needs of the Tax Agency depend on very variable factors , such as the economic environment – national and international –, business models or technological advances. However, it is possible to plan for a more reasonable period of time. The Strategic Plan of the Tax Agency 2020-2023 responds to this purpose.

The current Civic-Tax Education Program, created in May 2003, had as its main antecedents the various sociological investigations of the Institute of Fiscal Studies, which allowed to know in a continuous way the social perception of taxation, and the recommendations made in 1994 by the Special Unit for the Study of Fraud on the convenience of introducing tax education in the educational system.

The European Public Prosecutor's Office is an organization with its own legal personality that extends its powers throughout the European Union to protect, in the criminal field, the financial interests of the Union, and which has been created by Regulation (EU) 2017/1939 of the Council, dated October 12, 2017.

In recent years, we have seen significant progress in the international exchange of tax information, which has thus become a powerful tool for tax authorities to access cross-border information and thus ensure the effective application of the tax system.

The globalisation of economies and the increase in cross-border operations have posed a major challenge for tax authorities. The last few years have been key in terms of increasing the transparency of international information and consolidating all information exchanges promoted in the European Union and within the OECD .

The Economic Management Service of the Tax Agency is responsible for the administration of the financial and material resources necessary to fulfill its purposes, additionally acting as the Agency's accounting service.

The Planning and Institutional Relations Service (SEPRI) plays a central role in the design and development of the strategic and operational planning of the Tax Agency, assuming the tasks of promotion, coordination and monitoring of all planning instruments with the ultimate goal of being the reference service in the transversal tasks aimed at fulfilling the mission of the organization.

The Spanish tax administration, like all public administrations, requires legal assistance to accompany the development of its actions to guarantee the principle of legality and act with the greatest legal certainty.

As in any organization with more than 26,000 employees, the Human Resources Department is a fundamental part of the Tax Agency's operation and structure, since all its functions can be condensed into one: Provide each unit of the organization with the necessary personnel, in quantity and quality, so that they can perform the functions assigned to them; as well as having that staff committed, motivated and prepared to carry out their work with the greatest efficiency at all times.

The Customs and Excise Department of the Tax Agency is responsible, among other things, for the management and control of taxes on foreign trade, excise taxes and environmental taxes. Another area of competence is related to the repression of smuggling, drug trafficking and money laundering.

The 2020-2023 Strategic Plan is a reflection by the Tax Agency on its commitments, priorities, lines of action and performance indicators.

The Tax Agency has been a pioneer in the development of electronic services in the Spanish public sector and in facilitating citizens' right to interact electronically.

The Tax Agency's Collection bodies are constantly working to promote voluntary compliance by taxpayers by improving the mechanisms made available to them.

Last week, the Tax Agency published four statistics: On Tuesday, the foreign trade statistics for February and the monthly advance of the vehicle registration tax for the month of March were published, and on Wednesday, the statistics with the 2019 information on the country-by-country declaration of multinationals with a Spanish parent company and the weekly report on daily domestic sales. Following the start of publication of the latter at the end of the year, it can now be said that there is not a week of the year in which the Tax Agency does not publish one or more statistics.

The Tax Agency continues to strengthen, especially within the framework of the 2020-2023 Strategic Plan, the intensification and expansion of its taxpayer assistance services, considering them an essential element to promote voluntary compliance. 

The Tax Agency has set as one of its essential objectives to achieve an improvement in the tax behaviour of taxpayers by providing assistance in compliance. In this assistance work, the IRPF campaign takes on particular relevance at this time of year.

The Tax Agency's essential objectives include improving taxpayers' tax behaviour by providing assistance in compliance and, secondly, combating tax fraud.

Information and assistance to taxpayers is one of the main strategic lines of action of the Tax Agency, which has been intensified in recent years. Its foundation is based on the belief that its improvement not only facilitates voluntary compliance, but also significantly reduces non-compliance with tax obligations by everyone.

This is the first edition of the newsletter of the Tax Agency.

We live in a world where staying up to date is a challenge. For this reason, public administrations must offer citizens the possibility of easily accessing all the information that may interest them. In the ever-changing tax field, this is even more necessary, hence this new initiative by the Tax Agency.