The extraordinary fiscal measures against COVID-19 come into force with RDL 8/2020 of 17 March.
It should be remembered that on 14 March the BOE published RD 463/2020 of 14 March, which decreed the State of Alarm and a series of measures in all areas to control the health crisis.
In the area of taxation, the third and fourth additional provisions included the suspension of terms and the interruption of administrative deadlines, respectively. And the suspension of prescription and expiry periods, during the entire period of validity of the state of alarm.
These measures have been developed by Royal Decree-Law 8/2020, and are added to those approved on March 13 in the BOE contained in Royal Decree 7/2020 on extraordinary measures.
In this entry we see the legal aspects of the company that the experts of our Tax Consulting Department summarize.
Extraordinary fiscal measures against COVID-19
Suspension of Terms.
Contained in Article 33 of RD 8/2020.
The following deadlines, which had not expired by 18 March 2020, will be extended until 30 April 2020.
- The deadlines for payment of tax debts (voluntary and executive)
- Due dates for payment of instalment agreements granted
- Time limits for responding to requests and making allegations in verification and sanctioning procedures; seizure and information requests; return of improper income; correction of material errors and revocation
The previous deadlines that will be communicated from March 18, 2020, will be extended until May 20, 2020.
The filing of tax returns and self-assessments is not suspended
Regardless of the above, if the request is complied with or the allegations are made, the procedure will be considered to have been completed.
For the purposes of calculating expiry and prescription periods, the period between 18 March and 30 April shall not be counted. Whether they are in favour of the AEAT or of the interested party.
Flexibility in the deferment of tax debts.
Provided in Article 14 of RD 7/2020.
An exceptional measure is contemplated to make tax debt deferrals more flexible, applicable only to SMEs and the Self-employed:
- The possibility of a 6-month deferral without accruing interest during the first 3 months is granted. Refers to the payment of the tax debt corresponding to the returns-settlements and self-assessments whose voluntary period for presentation and payment ends between 13 March and 30 May 2020, inclusive.
- Debts not exceeding 30,000€ may be deferred, without the need to provide guarantees.
- The debtor must be a person or entity with a volume of operations not exceeding 6,010,121.04€ in 2019.
This measure will also be applicable to tax debts that cannot be deferred under normal conditions (sections b), f) and g) of Article 65.2 of the General Tax Law.
- Forms 111, 115, 123, 216… related to withholdings and payments on account.
- Form 202: payment in installments on account of Corporation Tax.
- Finally, Form 303: output and collected VAT payments.
Consequently, unless dates different from those currently established for filing returns and self-assessments are approved, this measure will mainly affect the returns of the first quarter and the monthly returns of February, March and April. It may also affect the IS returns and self-assessments of taxpayers whose fiscal year end does not coincide with the calendar year
Procedure for requesting a postponement
The AEAT has published on its website provisional instructions for applying this measure of flexible deferrals. The procedure would be:
- Submit the usual procedure for the self-assessment in which the amount to be paid that the taxpayer wants to postpone appears. Marking as with any deferment the option of “acknowledgement of debt”.
- Access the procedure “Submit request”, within the deferral section of the AEAT’s electronic headquarters, at the following link:
- Fill in the fields of the application.
- Important: check the box “Application under Royal Decree-Law 7/2020, of 12 March, adopting urgent measures to respond to the economic impact of COVID-19.
- In the Payment Proposal section. The following message should appear: “Request under Royal Decree Law 7/2020, of 12 March, adopting urgent measures to respond to the economic impact of COVID-19.
- In addition, the following fields must be specially filled in:
- “Type of guarantees provided”: tick the option “Exemption”.
- “Proposal of deadlines; no. of deadlines”: tick the number “1”.
- “Periodicity”: tick the option “Not applicable”.
- “Date first period”: incorporate the date corresponding to a period of six months from the end of the ordinary period for presentation of the self-assessment (for example, for VAT self-assessment MOD 303 of February, which expires on 30 March, the date to be included would be 30-09-2020).
- Important: In the field “Reason for the request” you must include the expression “Deferral RDL”.
Once signed and sent, this message will appear:
Your postponement request has been correctly registered in the system on day X at X hours, having selected the option “Request under Royal Decree-Law 7/2020, of 12 March, adopting urgent measures to respond to the economic impact of COVID-19”.
In conclusion, two tax debt deferral procedures can be distinguished for this exceptional period:
- Normal” deferment
- Deferment “RDL”
In this link you can see the differences between both systems:
For any clarification, please do not hesitate to contact us.
Arrabe Integra
Tax Consulting