The transfer of the so-called “aggressive tax planning” from the liquidation phase to the collection phase that has taken place in recent years has been characterized, among other behaviors, by the location by debtors of their assets and rights of economic content in tax jurisdictions other than those in which the tax debt is generated, as the main strategy to hinder seizure actions.

This circumstance has highlighted the inexorable need to promote and strengthen international administrative cooperation as an ideal mechanism to protect the collection of tax credits, overcoming the limitations derived from the territorial configuration of sovereignty.

The need to respond to the aforementioned problem led to the creation of the National International Collection Team (hereinafter, ENCI), depending on the General Subdirectorate of Coordination and Management of the Collection Department, through the Resolution of May 27, 2023, of the Presidency of the State Agency for Tax Administration, on the organization, functions and attribution of powers in the collection area (BOE June 1, 2023).

The creation of the ENCI is part of the Tax Agency's commitment to strengthen administrative cooperation and mutual assistance at the international level to ensure that all taxpayers with tax obligations in Spain are subject to the same degree of control, based on their tax risk, regardless of whether they operate or have assets or rights outside of Spanish territory.

In this regard, it should be noted that centralized planning in the area of mutual assistance in collection is one of the pillars of the complex control actions in matters of collection that are foreseen in the Strategic Plan of the Tax Agency 2024-2027.

From an organizational point of view, the creation of ENCI has made it possible to promote systematized and centralized planning in the Tax Collection Department that allows maximizing both the number of requests sent or received from other States, under a homogeneous criterion.

As a result of the above, the number of requests for mutual assistance received from other States has increased, as well as the number of requests sent to other States has increased exponentially, with the consequent increase in income.

The increase has a double effect:

• A direct effect: derived from the collection request action itself.
• An induced effect: to the extent that, by promoting this type of action, debtors become aware that the Tax Agency ordinarily carries out, in its actions aimed at debt collection and through the collaboration of other States, the seizure of assets and rights of economic content located outside the national territory.

In addition, ENCI is also working to enhance the presence of officials from the collection area in tax collection management activities carried out by other States.