Assistance in tax compliance

• SMEs, the self-employed and, in general, the 3.5 million VAT filers, will have a good part of the census information and some economic data automatically incorporated into the settlement.
• Taxpayers and tax professionals will thus have greater certainty when declaring a complex tax and will be able to reduce the time spent on its management and settlement.
• Additionally, the number of potential beneficiaries of the 'Pre303 Total', or fully completed VAT draft, extends to 41,000 SII taxpayers with the extension to large companies, and also to some 600,000 filers who are exclusively landlords.

February 12, 2021 .- The Tax Agency has put into operation the second phase of the VAT draft, in which it will offer more facilities for filing the tax to all taxpayers with the automatic incorporation into the declaration of a good part of the census information and some economic data that can be offered to the declarant already completed. All relevant information about the service can be found on the Agency's website ( sede.agenciatributaria.gob.es ) in a specific space called 'Pre303'.

Therefore, in the second phase of the project, included in the Strategic Plan of the Tax Agency 2020-2023, the improvements in the 'Pre303' especially reach SMEs, the self-employed and, in general, those around 3.5 millions of VAT filers, as well as the tax professionals who, where appropriate, carry out the settlements on their behalf, since all of them will be able to count on greater certainty when declaring a complex tax and will also be able to reduce the time spent to its management and liquidation.

These improvements will be made available to all taxpayers in April, when the first quarter's settlement period begins, but before then, in the monthly declaration for January, which is to be submitted this February, the improvements will be made available to large companies covered by the Immediate Supply of Information (SII).

Until now, the so-called 'Pre303 Total', or fully completed VAT draft, was generally provided to filers covered by the SII with an annual sales volume of less than 6 million euros. With the extension, the number of potential beneficiaries of 'Pre303 Total' will rise from 17,000 to 41,000.

In turn, nearly 600,000 taxpayers who are exclusively landlords, whether or not they are covered by the SII, will also be able to use this fully completed VAT draft.

Improvements for all VAT filers

The census improvements that are now offered to all VAT filers for the presentation of self-assessment form 303 begin even before the presenter accesses the specific content of the form, with the 'VAT Census Window' being made available to them. ', which will show the most relevant census information for tax purposes in the corresponding settlement period – for example, the information for the month of February, or the first quarter, for the next monthly and quarterly settlements, respectively.

Thus, fields such as IAE sections, special regimes, apportionment data, etc. will appear, but only those that are relevant and those that affect the taxpayer, ignoring the rest to facilitate reading.

Knowing and keeping census information up to date is a laborious process for the taxpayer and not always free of complications, which may involve having to dedicate a significant amount of time to these tasks. From now on, taxpayers are offered the opportunity to find out the most relevant aspects of their census situation in order to detect possible inconsistencies or outdated data and, where appropriate, proceed to correct them to avoid possible administrative actions.

After the 'VAT Census Window', the taxpayer now accesses the first section of form 303, which is the identification section. Until now, this section consisted of certain census questions that taxpayers had to answer. The 'Pre303' eliminates this question format and offers the census situation already pre-filled at the time of settlement.

In general, the taxpayer must only fill in those boxes that imply an option that he must necessarily express, such as accepting or waiving the special apportionment. Of all the fields to be completed in the identification section, between 85 and 90% will be pre-filled by the Agency, with the consequent saving of time and convenience for the declarant or tax professional who makes the submission.

At the same time, in the new section 'My VAT census data', the main novelty is the possibility of modifying from the 303 form itself the general census data - which already corresponds to the present moment of the declarant, updated -, with direct access to the specific section of the corresponding census declaration or model.

Compensation fees and other general facilities

Although all taxpayers cannot obtain a draft with a final result because the Agency does not have sufficient data to do so, the improvements for all taxpayers do affect some boxes in the results section, which already includes the financial data of the declaration.

Particularly noteworthy is the incorporation of improvements in the section on contributions to be offset from previous periods and the creation of the 'Portfolio of contributions to be offset', responding to a historical demand from taxpayers to simplify and facilitate the monitoring, accounting, control and declaration of these outstanding contributions. It should be noted that the taxpayer may have to monitor and audit up to 48 self-assessments from previous years.

From now on, in addition to a greater breakdown of boxes that facilitates monitoring (outstanding contributions from previous years, contributions applied in the current declaration and outstanding contributions in the future), the 'Portfolio of contributions to be offset' will offer a pre-filled box for outstanding contributions from previous years. The taxpayer will only have to decide the amount he wants to apply in the current declaration and the Agency will also show the outstanding installments for the future. The tool also offers a table to check the period of generation of all pending installments to avoid possible expirations.

There are other fields that will be offered pre-completed to all declarants when the Agency has the corresponding information - all of them with the possibility of modification by the taxpayer -, in the case of the current account number from previous declarations, the pending import VAT of income (box 77), or in the case of presentation of complementary declarations, the supporting document number and the amount of the settlement subject to the complementary (box 70).

New declarants with option to complete draft

Beyond the universal improvements in the 'Pre303', since last year a potential group of 17,000 taxpayers have had the possibility of accessing a fully completed draft, the so-called 'Pre303 Total'. These were taxpayers registered with the SII who, for this reason, kept their books in the Agency's own electronic headquarters, and who, in addition, did not exceed 6 million euros in annual sales volume and were not taxed under any special regime, nor did they apply prorated rates, nor did they have differentiated sectors of activity.

There are two main advances in this regard. On the one hand, the limit of 6 million is eliminated, so that any company covered by the SII that does not have the aforementioned specialties will be able to have a complete draft and will also be able to access and review the content of the so-called 'Added Books', which already have the treatment of the amounts for the purposes of incorporation into the draft.

On the other hand, all landlords of premises and urban housing who do not carry out any other activity will also be able to have the complete draft, even if they are not registered in the SII, since from April they will be able to automatically transfer to form 303, in a single click, the amounts calculated with the specific service to help landlords, which operated separately from the declaration, while now it will be accessible from the form itself.

This second phase of 'Pre303' is not considered definitive, but rather as one more step on the path marked by the Agency's Strategic Plan to continue working on the progressive expansion of potential beneficiaries of the VAT draft.