On May 27th, 2020, the Royal Decree-Law 19/2020 was published in the Official State Gazette (BOE), which includes new measures in the economic, tax, Social Security, scientific and agrarian fields to combat the consequences of COVID-19 (new tax measures in Spain).
The main mercantile measure corresponds to the deadlines for presentation and approval of the Annual Accounts in Spain. The formulation of the Annual Accounts and other legal documents will be extended for a period of 3 months. Said term will start counting from June 1st, 2020. Additionally, this Royal Decree-Law reduces the term for the approval of the annual accounts from 3 to 2 months. In summary, every company with a tax closing as of December 31, 2019, must have their accounts approved within the first 10 months of the year.
With regards to the new tax measures in Spain implemented, the presentation of the Corporate Income Tax (CIT) is affected. The term for filing the CIT is not altered, being the 25 calendar days following the 6 months after the end of the tax period. In the event that the Annual Accounts have not been approved by the administrative body, the tax authorities will allow the filing of a second tax return, the term of which will be extended until November 30th, 2020. If a different outcome results from this second filing either higher or lower, this return will be considered “complementary” and will not generate any type of surcharge for late presentation.
Additionally, Royal Decree-Law 19/2020 has included a modification in relation to the accrual of default interest in certain tax deferrals in Spain. The term is extended to 4 months of non-accrual of default interest for deferrals that had been previously regulated in article 14 of Royal Decree-Law 7/2020, of March 12th.
