Although the tax collection regulations establish different places for payments of debts collected by the State Tax Administration, these payments are made, in their entirety, through credit institutions authorized to act as collaborators.

For reasons of procedural economy, and to achieve the greatest possible agility in monitoring compliance with obligations by those required to pay, the collaborating entities centralize, at a national level, both the payment into the Treasury of the amounts collected by them and the sending to the Tax Agency of the detailed information necessary for the management, imputation and monitoring of the same.

The obvious importance of the above in the context of state tax revenues, the main source of funding for the state budget, made it essential to create a Unit whose functions were specifically related to the provision of the service of collaboration in state tax collection management by credit institutions.

Thus, in 1995, the Presidency of the Tax Agency created the Collaborating Entities Control Unit (currently, the Central Team for the Control of Collaborating Entities), which is integrated into the Collection Department, under the dependence of the General Subdirectorate of Coordination and Management.

Since its creation, this Unit has exercised all the powers related to the performance of the collaborating entities, which include the authorization of credit institutions to act as such, the control of their performance and the development of all those regulations related to the making of payments in favor of the State Treasury, both in terms of the design of new payment procedures and the use of new forms and means of making them.

Among the tasks carried out by the Collaborating Entities Control Unit, it is worth highlighting those aimed at ensuring that the detailed information supplied by the collaborating entities meets the quality standards required for the automatic allocation of income to those obliged, as well as those aimed at ensuring that, in each fortnightly collection period, the information supplied by each of the collaborating entities coincides exactly with the amount paid by them into the Treasury account at the Bank of Spain.

This process of accepting and reconciling information from collaborating entities is particularly important, since this process is a prerequisite for the accounting and application of income, and is therefore an essential element for the Tax Agency to carry out its duties in relation to the control and monitoring of tax obligations.

Finally, to the extent that this unit is responsible for regulating the incorporation of new means and methods of income, it can be said that it contributes directly to achieving the objective of making it easier for citizens and companies to comply with their tax obligations, which is one of the fundamental purposes of the Tax Agency.