Status of the refund process

• Taxpayers entitled to a refund received an average of 1,300 euros. In the case of women, the average return reaches 2,012 euros and in men 470 euros.

• In recent weeks, more than 180,000 refund requests have been received as part of a process that is still open.

• The start of refunds to public employees in accordance with the Royal Decree-Law of late December is pending the Tax Agency receiving all the information from the various paying public administrations.

March 26, 2019 .- More than 563,000 mothers and fathers have received to date the IRPF refund linked to maternity and paternity leave enjoyed between 2014 and 2017. The sum of the amounts (refund plus interest) returned to these people, following the Supreme Court ruling of 3 October declaring exemption of public maternity benefits from Social Security, exceeds 733 million euros.

These figures are not final, as taxpayers continue to submit applications. In fact, nearly 180,000 refund requests have been received in the last seven weeks.

In addition, there are a whole series of complex cases that require a longer period of prior verification before a request is resolved positively or negatively, including duplicate requests, those with an incorrect bank account or no account, and cases of declarations that have already been subject to verification.

Complicated cases may arise from the complexity of the applicant's tax situation, as well as from the declaration submitted at the time, since determining the specific amount to be refunded requires a recalculation of the entire declaration and, therefore, affects aspects as diverse as exempt and non-exempt income, reductions, declaration type, etc.

At this time, out of a total of 1,021,000 applicants, 733,000 have had their applications processed and, of these last, 563,000 taxpayers have had to make a refund, which represents 76.8% of all those whose applications have been processed. It should be noted that not all applications generate a right to a refund, since there are taxpayers who have not suffered withholding or have not paid any personal income tax due to having low income levels. Taxpayers entitled to a refund received an average of 1,300 euros. Specifically, women received an average of 2,012 euros and men 470 euros.

As regards the withholdings made in 2018, taxpayers are reminded that they do not need to carry out any procedure, since their Income Tax return for that year, which will be submitted from next April 2, will already include the benefits as exempt and the withholdings incurred will be deductible. In any case, as with any other tax information provided by the Tax Agency, it is recommended that taxpayers review it before filing their return.

As for the process of refunds to public employees, enabled by the Royal Decree-Law of late December, it is pending the receipt by the Tax Agency of all the information from the various paying public administrations and it is expected to be able to open it in the near future.