Removing barriers to understanding

• Eight models of communication to the taxpayer are modified, including an initial summary with the basic content in the most extensive documents
• The language is clarified and a new design is offered that helps to segment the information and distinguish the most relevant.
• The changes affect documentation requirements and personal income tax settlements, seizure procedures and customs declarations for small online purchases, which together account for more than 3.7 million documents per year.

November 2, 2023.- The Tax Agency has implemented the commitment established in the 2020-2023 Strategic Plan to make progress in simplifying the language it uses in its relationship with taxpayers to eliminate comprehension barriers and thereby minimize indirect administrative burdens on citizens, thus facilitating voluntary compliance.

To this end, the Agency has modified up to eight models of communication and notification to taxpayers that different areas of the AEAT use in their most common documents. These reviews, which will be implemented gradually over the coming months, cover more than 3.7 million documents per year.

The changes affect the documentation requirements for personal income tax, the settlement proposals and provisional settlements of the same tax, embargo proceedings for third-party debts (credits and salaries and pensions) and customs declarations for small-value imports – mainly online purchases – as well as the representation documents and the rights and guarantees of the taxpayer that accompany some of these documents.

A strategic objective

The Agency's Strategic Plan already established a commitment to improve communications to taxpayers to facilitate the understanding of administrative language, so that the wording of the most common documents is more understandable and simple for their recipients.

This clarification of the language is achieved by combining several elements, from shortening the length of some letters, to reducing information overload and differentiating relevant information, to the redesign of the way in which information is displayed to citizens, and all without losing the necessary correctness of the legal concepts used.

New content summary: what, why, how and where

Among the changes made to the Agency's documents, all of which have already been defined and are only pending computer implementation, the new content summary stands out.

A new summary of the basic information for each document is now included on the first page of the revised communications and notifications: What the citizen receives, why he receives it, what he should do after receiving it and where he can get help and resolve his doubts.

The new content summary follows the same philosophy of clear and direct language that is already being used in the new appointment application available on the Agency's website, with a synthetic question and answer scheme and a design that facilitates easier reading by the recipient.

Redesign for easier reading

The body of the documents and their annexes have also been revised, introducing a new design with graphic elements that highlight and differentiate the different sections, and a font size that makes reading easier. Similarly, the more complex writing elements have been revised in favour of conciseness and accessibility.

 In some documents this has in turn led to a reduction in overall content. As an example, the new credit seizure notice now has 700 fewer characters and the number of pages with actual content goes from eleven to six (specifically, the annex with the information to be transferred to the AEAT by the recipient of the letter goes from seven pages to just one).

Similarly, the annex to the diligence of the seizure of wages, salaries and pensions goes from three sides to two. And in both cases, the sequence of responses from the taxpayer is improved, as are the steps to follow in order to respond to these requests.

Personalized Assistance Plugin

In addition to all these improvements, it is planned that the recipient of the new documents will have the possibility of obtaining direct and personalized assistance from the Tax Agency in certain cases through a support system via the Comprehensive Digital Assistance Administrations, the ADI, and this in parallel with the constant development of virtual assistants and informants that facilitate the taxpayer's compliance with their obligations and the exercise of their rights through explanations in a more colloquial and familiar language.

With this ongoing project, the Tax Agency continues to advance in a strategy of facilitating tax compliance through a model in which each taxpayer's need is associated with assistance services by the Agency, so that it is the citizen who decides how he wants or needs to be assisted, and also preserving at all times the face-to-face attention in the offices as a fundamental axis of the information and assistance model.