Coronavirus in Spain: On 15 March 2020, the Spanish government declared a state of alert. This is now being extended and will last until the 11th of April for the time being. As a result of this decision, all workers will have to work from home if possible. In order to mitigate the effects of the COVID 19 pandemic, the government has published a number of measures to support companies through RD 7/2020. At Arintass, we will like to summarise these for you below.
The first measure is the deferral of tax payments. Tax deferral is granted for settlements whose submission deadline is between 13 March 2020 and 30 May 2020. This concerns the VAT of the first quarter of 2020 for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).
Under Decree HAP/2178/2015, amounts of less than €30,000 may be deferred for up to six months and no interest on arrears will be charged during the first three months of the deferment. Tax deferral, which is normally not possible, is authorised under Article 65 of the General Tax Code. In particular, debts arising from withholdings and payments on account, output taxes such as VAT or partial payments of corporate income tax.
Only persons or companies with an annual transaction volume of less than EUR 6,010,121.04 in 2019 may apply this measure. It should be noted that only the payment can be deferred, the deadline for submission remains unchanged.
The second measure is the suspension and postponement of deadlines in the tax field.
Deadlines that have not yet expired at the time of entry into force of this Royal Decree Law will be extended until 30 April 2020 in some cases:
- The extension applies to tax debts, from settlements made by the public administration; seizure procedures and requests for information with tax implications; corrections of material errors; return of improper income or filing of legal actions. The extension of the deadline also applies if the state of emergency was invoked during the execution phase of proceedings.
In addition, guarantee executions relating to real estate from the entry into force of this Royal Legislative Decree until 30 April 2020 will not be continued
The new deadlines for notifications sent after the entry into force of this measure will be extended until 20 May 2020; if the regular deadline is longer, a longer deadline will apply. This applies to granted deferral and fractionation arrangements and the development of auctions and the allocation of goods to deal with requests, seizure procedures, information requests, pleadings – or opening of negotiations.
However, if the taxpayer complies with the tax obligations and information requirements or submits its requests within the regularly set time limit, the procedure is deemed to be completed.
The provisions described above do not apply to the Customs Act. The Customs Act contains its own special provisions regarding deadlines for the submission of applications and requests.
Finally, all offices of the Spanish Tax Agency (Agencia Tributaria) will remain closed during the alert period, but electronic notifications will continue to function normally.
