Major reform of Spain's General Tax Law

Automatic summary, not yet reviewed

1. A new tax offense is created for conflicts in the application of the law: anyone using abusive schemes already known to the Tax Agency can be fined up to 50% of the unpaid amount.
2. The Tax Agency may publish lists of debtors with unpaid tax debts or penalties above €1,000,000 once the voluntary payment period has passed. The lists will be published electronically and will stop being accessible after three months.
3. The law clarifies that the statute of limitations on the right to assess taxes does not affect the Administration's right to verify and investigate. For pending offsets and deductions, that right to verify expires after ten years.
4. The tax audit time limit is rewritten: 18 months as a general rule and 27 months in cases such as large companies or groups taxed on a consolidated basis. Interruptions are simplified and the taxpayer is informed of the applicable deadline.
5. When there are signs of a crime against the Public Treasury, the Administration can generally continue assessing and collecting the tax debt even while the criminal case is ongoing, unless the judge suspends collection with a guarantee.
6. The recovery of illegal State aid in tax matters is regulated: the Administration enforces European Commission decisions, may modify even final acts, and the resulting debt cannot be deferred or paid in installments.
7. Economic-administrative appeals are streamlined: more electronic procedures, doctrine unification, a new annulment appeal, an appeal against the enforcement of decisions, and an abbreviated procedure replaces the one before single-judge bodies.
8. Smuggling penalties are toughened, with special focus on tobacco: higher fines, closure of establishments, and new offenses for resisting or obstructing investigating officials.

Who it affects

• Taxpayers and companies with large tax debts: They can appear on public debtor lists if they owe more than €1,000,000.
• Users of abusive tax schemes: They can be fined under the new offense for conflict in the application of the law.
• Companies and self-employed people audited by the Tax Agency: New audit deadlines and rules on reviewing time-barred tax years apply to them.
• People who appeal to the economic-administrative courts: They have new appeals and more electronic, faster procedures.
• Financial institutions and account holders: They must identify and report the tax residence of those who own or control accounts.

Words worth knowing

Prescripción (statute of limitations)

Loss of the Tax Agency's right to assess or collect a debt once the legal deadline passes.

Conflicto en la aplicación de la norma (conflict in the application of the law)

A tool against business setups created only to abusively pay less tax.

Tasación pericial contradictoria (contradictory expert valuation)

A process where the taxpayer's own expert challenges the value the Tax Agency assigned to an asset.

Ayudas de Estado (State aid)

Tax or economic advantages a country gives to companies, which the European Commission can order repaid if illegal.

Tanto de culpa (referral of charges)

A document by which the Tax Agency hands facts over to a judge or prosecutor in case they are a crime.

It summarizes the law as published in the BOE. It is written by artificial intelligence and may contain mistakes: the official text is what counts. Read the official text · How we make summaries