What is the statute of limitations for taxes in Spain
Patrick2024-07-23T05:37:51+00:00You will agree with me when I say that there is a lot of confusion about the tax statute of limitations for a company or self-employed person.
4, 5, 10 years?
The tax authorities have four years to check your company’s tax situation.
However, remember that this period may be extended.
See with Asesoria Orihuela Costa when this interruption occurs and its consequences.
Statute of limitations - general rule
Four-year statute of limitations
If your company files a self-assessment tax return, the tax authorities will have four years to check it (and, where applicable, your company will also have the same period to rectify it).
This period is calculated from the day following the day on which the statutory deadline for filing the tax return ends, regardless of whether the tax return was filed a few days earlier.
For example, if your company files its tax return on 10 July, the four-year period will also start on 26 July (the day following the end of the general filing deadline).
Special time limits for the limitation period for tax returns
However, this period is longer for the verification of bases or quotas offset or pending offset or deductions applied or pending application.
Specifically, the tax authorities can initiate an audit of these items within ten years of their being generated and declared.
Once this period has elapsed, your company must keep the corresponding self-assessment tax return and accounts at least until the period for verification of the last year in which the bases or quotas are offset and the deductions are applied has expired.
The case of interruption of the limitation period
Interruption of the statute of limitations by the tax authorities
However, the limitation period is interrupted and the four-year period starts to run afresh if, within the limitation period, the tax authorities notify you of any action relating to your tax return which leads to recognition, adjustment, verification, inspection, assurance or assessment.
This is the case even if the resolution of the procedure is favourable to your company.
For example, if the Inland Revenue audits the VAT deducted by your company in the fourth quarter of 2022 and the audit ends with a favourable decision notified to you on 15 July 2024, the Inland Revenue will again have until 15 July 2028 to verify other aspects not previously audited.
Related obligations
This interruption can also occur if the tax authorities initiate an audit on other obligations connected or related to a particular tax.
For example, if the tax authorities initiate a corporate income tax audit for 2021 and consider that certain expenses are not deductible because they are not related to the activity, they may consider that the input VAT on such expenses is also not deductible for the same reason.
And with regard to these expenses, the limitation period for VAT returns will also be considered to be interrupted.
Interruption by the company
Finally, your company can also interrupt the limitation period by its own actions if it files a supplementary tax return or rectifies a self-assessment, or if it lodges a complaint or an appeal concerning a tax return assessed by the tax authorities.
Incentive prescription
Finally, the limitation period for incentives (deductions, exemptions, etc.) that depend on fulfilling a condition in the future may also be extended.
This occurs, for example, in the case of the incentive of freedom of depreciation for job creation, the consolidation of which is conditional on the increase in employment and the maintenance of this increase in the following two financial years.
Thus, if the condition of maintaining the workforce ends in 2024, the tax authorities will have until 25 July 2029 (when the 2024 IS expires) to check this.
The four-year limitation period may start again if your company is subject to an audit by the tax authorities (even if the audit ends with a favourable ruling) or if your company submits an amendment, among other cases.