Reforms in undeclared homes, high rents that pretend not to live in Spain to pay less taxes and cryptocurrencies. These are three of the main priorities of the Tax Agency for this year, the last of the legislature, reflected in the new tax control plan published this Monday by the Ministry of Finance in the Official State Gazette (BOE). The objective is to stop fraud in 2023, which will be a record in tax collection.
The Treasury assures that it will reinforce "control over sectors and business models in which there is a high risk of existence of an underground economy." Home rehabilitation is one of them. In this way, the Tax Agency plans to intensify the "traditional visits or tax combing in relation to multiple sectors, although with a special focus on activities related to construction, rehabilitation and reforms of real estate." Likewise, the inspection will pay special attention to the identification of management and accounting software tools used by businesses and companies that seek to hide sales.
The non-resident income tax (IRNR) is, according to the Treasury, another pole of action and, therefore, of possible fraud. The inspection will reinforce its work in identifying high net worth individuals who declare that they do not reside in Spain in order to reduce their tax bill, despite the fact that they are doing so. With this maneuver, they manage to pay lower tax rates than if they declared personal income tax and, furthermore, they only pay tax on the income generated in our country and not on their overall income.
Another focus of attention will be on taxpayers who practice the so-called residence simulation in autonomous communities different from the real one, thus trying to pay less taxes. The Treasury also seeks to exploit information on "beneficial owners of opaque companies with high-end residential real estate" and on indirect property owners by non-residents.
The tax plan also stands out for the novelty of incorporating measures for voluntary compliance with obligations. That is to say, those taxpayers who have not correctly confirmed the data in the draft of their income statement or who have simply misrepresented some information. There is no intention of defrauding and, therefore, the Treasury considers that its action forms part of the right to error. They will not be penalized if no losses have been caused to the public treasury.
Regarding the inspection of the so-called "virtual payments", the Tax Agency will reinforce the obtaining of information on these practices "through entities or applications whose registered office and servers are located abroad".
The tax collection area also plans to strengthen the action of locating cryptocurrencies susceptible to embargo, while the customs surveillance service will develop an investigation plan associated with the use of virtual currencies in the field of the digital economy with the purpose of to detect patrimonial elements whose origin may be linked to criminal activities.
The Tax Agency recalls that it will not lift control over those activities aimed at diverting expenses from individuals, using operating companies. "It will once again affect the verification of negative tax bases, tax credits on the basis or quota pending compensation or application," the inspection plan highlights.
Among the novelties, the Tax Agency also incorporates the two new temporary taxes on energy and credit institutions and financial credit establishments, as well as the temporary solidarity tax on large fortunes. "The Agency will assume the powers of levying, management, verification and collection with respect to these two temporary taxes, despite being a patrimonial benefit of a public non-tax nature, and will exercise the powers that are its own with respect to the temporary tax on large fortunes. ”.
