New communication forums on tax matters.

• Representatives of UPTA, ATA and UATAE will be members of the Self-Employed Workers forum, while CEOE and Cepyme will participate in the SME forum
• Two working groups are created within each forum, one dedicated to regulatory analysis and digitalization projects, and another aimed at analyzing and approving codes of good practices for both groups.
• The forums have among their objectives the reduction of administrative burdens, the improvement of legal certainty, the promotion of electronic administration and collaboration in the prevention and fight against fraud

February 16, 2022 .- The Tax Agency and the main federations and associations of SMEs and the self-employed have today established two forums to promote the cooperative relationship under the principles of transparency and mutual trust. The constitution act was attended by the Secretary of State for Finance, Héctor Izquierdo, and the general director of the Tax Agency, Jesús Gascón, as well as the members of the forums representing the self-employed and SMEs, and the Agency itself. .

The Self-Employed Workers forum will have the participation of representatives of the Union of Professionals and Self-Employed Workers (UPTA), the National Federation of Associations of Self-Employed Workers (ATA) and the Union of Associations of Self-Employed Workers and Entrepreneurs (UATAE). In turn, the Small and Medium Enterprises forum will have the presence of the Spanish Confederation of Business Organizations (CEOE) and the Spanish Confederation of Small and Medium Enterprises (Cepyme). The forums will be chaired by the general director of the Tax Agency and the heads of the Management, Inspection, Collection and IT departments, as well as the head of the Planning and Institutional Relations Service, will also be members of both. 

The objectives of the forums include the reduction of administrative burdens, the dissemination of the new facilities that the Agency is offering for compliance with tax obligations and the promotion of the use of electronic administration in the relationships of self-employed workers and SMEs with the Tax Agency, all in favor of an improvement in the application of the tax system. Likewise, we will collaborate in the prevention and fight against tax fraud.

Digitalization and regulatory analysis working group

Expanding on these general objectives, two specific working groups are created within the forums. One of them will be dedicated to promoting the development of digitalization projects for SMEs and the self-employed, as well as the analysis of their tax regimes to ensure their adaptation to the economic and business reality of these groups and the improvement of their legal security.

The digitalization project aims to modernize the administrative management of SMEs and the self-employed and facilitate compliance with their formal obligations through secure billing systems that, at the same time, would contribute to the reduction of fraud generated by the so-called 'double-duty software'. use'.

To eradicate these sales concealment programs, the 2021 'anti-fraud' law established measures that must now be completed by regulation with a minimum standard to be met in the manufacturing and marketing and possession of this billing 'software'.

In this context, and in accordance with the provisions of Component 27 of the Recovery Plan, the Agency has already been holding meetings with organizations representing SMEs and the self-employed in order to analyze technical alternatives in the configuration of these programs, so that not only allow compliance with the prohibition of 'dual-use software', but the same product also offers possible comprehensive digital solutions for compliance with billing and registration obligations.

Code of good practice

The second working group will be dedicated to the development of two codes of good practices, one for self-employed workers and another specific for small and medium-sized companies, which can be signed by the associations and federations representing these groups, and to which the workers can adhere. self-employed workers and SMEs who wish to do so.

These codes will allow the parties, administration, businessmen and professionals to express their commitment to voluntary compliance with tax obligations, for which collaboration instruments are reinforced with the aim of promoting legal certainty, reducing conflict in the tax area, the services provided to the self-employed and SMEs, the training to be offered to these groups and transparency and the prevention and fight against tax fraud and the underground economy.

This progress is made in the development of a cooperative relationship model between the Agency and taxpayers that has already resulted in the creation of a code of good tax practices in the Large Companies forum in 2010 and another specific code for professional associations and colleges. in 2019.