What does the negative result in the 2023-2024 income tax return mean?

The arrival of April focuses the concerns of Spaniards on the income tax return campaign.

Oliver Thansan
Oliver Thansan
10 April 2024 Wednesday 10:26
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What does the negative result in the 2023-2024 income tax return mean?

The arrival of April focuses the concerns of Spaniards on the income tax return campaign. A procedure that must be passed by anyone who meets the following description: having deposited more than 22,000 euros from a single payer or, when there is more than one payer, more than 15,000 euros, provided that the sum of what was collected from the second and other payers exceeds 1,500 euros per year.

This is the starting point, but depending on the case, the result of the declaration can offer a positive or negative result. What does this mean?

In the return filing schedule, the result of the settlement is indicated at the top of the "Return Summary". If it is done individually, only one result will appear, but if data from the spouse is included and it is considered to do it jointly, a comparison will appear between one and the other.

In the case of obtaining a negative result, that is, seeing a numerical figure with a small dash in front (-), it will mean that the Treasury must return the indicated amount to the taxpayer.

"The declarant must, where appropriate, complete or confirm the unique identifier of the account, IBAN, and proceed to confirm and present it. In the event that a refund is requested in an account opened abroad, the identifying data will be communicated of said bank account", explains the Tax Agency in the practical manual for this year's campaign.

The amount in question will be deposited into the detailed bank account. Although payments have begun on the third day of the campaign, the Tax Agency has room. You have six months from the moment the campaign ends (July 1) to make the deposit without having to pay interest. After that period, surcharges do begin to apply.

The income tax return must be understood as a settlement of accounts with the treasury. In the personal income tax settlement for each campaign, it is checked whether the correct contributions were made throughout the year. If they are excessive, the taxpayer is refunded money for exceeding his quota. If he has fallen short, on the other hand, he will have to pay... In the case of a negative figure, it would indicate that he has paid more than our quota during the year.

Following these premises, if the result of the income tax return is positive, it will be the user who must pay the Treasury the indicated amount within the established deadlines. If the amount is high, you can choose to split the payment into two installments to cushion it. If you do so, a first amount, 60%, is paid when submitting the declaration, while the remaining 40% will be deducted on November 5.

It must be taken into account that the declarations that have results to be entered and with direct debit into account have a deadline of June 26 to be submitted.

Furthermore, you must be careful that all the information read in the draft is correct and complete, because errors are often detected in this step of the process and it is essential to avoid them. For example, deductions that would allow the result of the return to change from having to pay to a refund may be excluded.