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.

This involves the relocation of the place where contact between the taxpayer and the administration takes place, given that through the use of two-way image and sound communication systems and the secure transmission and reception of documentation, administrative actions can be carried out, including inspection procedures. The prerequisite is that the taxpayer consents to this form of communication.

As regards the Inspection, the Virtual Visit system ( VIVI ) is a computer development that allows the inspected taxpayers and their representatives or advisors to interact with the Inspection without the need to physically travel to the headquarters of the acting inspection body through the simultaneous use of the settlement and minutes management system and a video connection.

Within the continuous process of digitalization of administrative activities in which the AEAT is constantly involved, in 2020, after the approval of the aforementioned modifications to the General Tax Law, VIVI went into production coinciding with the health crisis that forced Spaniards to remain confined to their homes, allowing a multitude of open actions not to be stopped by these circumstances and to continue within the deadlines established in the tax regulations.

In this first approach to the Virtual Visit, the system was implemented for its exclusive use in the proceedings of attestation of facts that are usually extended in inspection verification procedures.

Furthermore, during 2021, VIVI was established as a common way of interacting between the Inspection bodies and the taxpayers or their advisors and representatives, extending this relationship also to the signing of inspection reports that include the settlement proposals resulting from the inspection procedures.

In 2022, the use of this computer system VIVI has continued to consolidate, thanks to the good reception among advisors and actuarial staff, making it a recurring system of interrelation with the taxpayer or their representatives, understood as a way to "bring" taxpayers closer to the office in charge of the administrative processing, saving costs and time by avoiding trips to the physical headquarters of the same.

Finally, VIVI is a digital tool that represents a major advance in the inspection procedure, but which in any case requires the consent of the taxpayer for its use as set out in the tax regulations. For this reason and because there may be situations that involve face-to-face meetings, the VIVI system must be understood as complementary to the face-to-face visit.

The implementation of this new system has therefore represented a major step forward in the fluidity of relations between both parties and in savings in costs and indirect tax burdens. This represents an improvement on the previous situation, in which taxpayers were forced to travel to the offices of the competent authority when faced with an inspection procedure, all with the maximum guarantees, both technical, security and legal.