Treasury inspectors will put a magnifying glass on housing reforms

The Tax agency This year, it plans to return to the usual level of supervision and inspection actions after the “stop” of the pandemic and will focus in particular on the real estate construction sector, with particular attention to rehabilitation and reform activities. It was stated in the Annual Plan of Tax and Customs Controls for 2023 published this Monday in State official gazettewhich specifies the measures of the Strategic Plan 2020-2023. which will be implemented this year, including the return of the presence “on the street” of its inspectors.

The Secretary of State for Finance, Jesús Gascón, pointed out during his speech in Congress that it is important that there are agents “waiting for these works to be declared correctly”, because “essential” to control the underground economy outside the digital realm.

Outside of real estate and construction, the Treasury will also step up supervision in the area of ​​electronic commerce platforms and in monitoring warning letters sent in 2022 to taxpayers who are at risk of not fulfilling their tax obligations.

Among the novelties of the control plan for 2023 are: implementation of comprehensive assistance to taxpayerswhich, as announced, will consist of a service letter that will allow the user, through the new appointment scheduling application, to select the service he needs and through which channel he wants to get help.

Sanctions will be adjusted according to the taxpayer’s history

In addition, the Agency provides introduce a new sanctioning regime which takes into account the compliance history of each taxpayer and will track those who do not change their tax behavior after adjustments have been made. “It’s not the same to make a mistake in an isolated way, but to do it all the time,” said Gascón, talking about the so-called. “right to make a mistake”a question that he considers necessary to take into account in the disciplinary procedure.

As for income tax, the plan provides redesign of renta web program to make it more intuitiveas well as working to reduce the number of non-filers, while income tax information for pending loans will be automatically uploaded and work is being done to improve refunds for SMEs.

Control fictitious changes of residence between communities

In the same way, the supervision of residents in Spain who report through non-resident tax, whereby they report only the income they earn in the country, as well as “simulation” of tax residency in the autonomous community where you do not live regularly (more than 183 days a year) in order to “take advantage of unfairly lower taxation”. “Sometimes there are fictitious relocations“, Gascón pointed out, or assets owned by opaque companies “and you have to know who the real owner is”, in case there is “some problem with fiscal residence to regulate that situation”.

Therefore, the Treasury will also devote efforts to the exploitation of data on the assets of the General Council of Notaries and monitor the economic activities of those who do not accept payment through the bankwhose income comes directly from the end consumer or who show “external signs of wealth” that are not in accordance with what is declared.

The tax administration will control whether socims meet the expected investment requirements, those using “virtual payments” and will work to “facilitate” the fulfillment of the obligations of cryptocurrency owners.

This will make it possible to correct declarations in the event of an error

In his intervention in Congress, the Secretary of State for Finance, Jesús Gascón, also pointed out that a regulatory change to enable taxpayers to submit correct self-assessments in case they make a mistake, a more agile system than the one that currently exists. Number two from the Ministry of Finance explained that this change will be introduced as an amendment to the bill transposing the directive on administrative cooperation in tax matters, which is currently in the procedure.

Gascón emphasized that until now, when a taxpayer made a mistake, he had to correct his assessment, a procedure similar to an appeal that implies a significant delay in time. With the new procedure of corrective self-taxation, the taxpayer will submit a second self-taxation similar to the original one, which will make use of the “absolute agility” of the system and will be able to obtain a “refund practically immediately”.

Gascón pointed out that the Ministry of Finance is also promoting amendments in the area of ​​management powers — so that, for example, an accounting document can be provided as evidence — or to clarify the professional secrecy of accounting consultants.

Billing increase

On the other hand, the Secretary of State indicated that the collection from 2022, which is awaiting closure, is “around” that from 2021 (15.1% more) and about 10,000 million above what was foreseen in the budget plan sent to Brussels, an increase in revenues that is expected to continue in 2023, albeit more moderately.

Without elaborating, Gascón pointed out that the increase in corporate tax collection in 2022 exceeded 20%, while the growth of income tax and VAT was around the general increase —”14, 15, 16%”— and the growth of income tax and VAT. special taxes will be lower.