- The Official State Gazette of 28 January published the guidelines of the 2020 Annual Tax and Customs Control Plan.
- Priorities include transfer pricing, international taxation, large estates and undeclared activity.
- The plan combines control and assistance: more digital tools for compliance and more data analysis to detect non-compliance.
The Official State Gazette of 28 January 2020 published the resolution of the Directorate-General of the Tax Agency, dated 21 January, with the general guidelines of the 2020 Annual Tax and Customs Control Plan. It is a document that the General Tax Act requires to be approved every year and that shows where the Agency will look for non-compliance in the coming months.
The guidelines are organised around five lines: information and assistance, prevention of non-compliance and promotion of voluntary compliance, investigation and verification of fraud, control of fraud at the collection stage, and cooperation with the regional tax authorities. The plan creates no new obligations, but it anticipates where the Agency will put its resources during the year.
Where the focus lies
On international taxation, the plan foresees an automated risk-analysis system using data on transactions between related entities, including country-by-country reports, and inspections of multinational groups on transfer pricing, permanent establishments and preferential regimes. It pays specific attention to highly digitalised businesses.
At the domestic level, it mentions the analysis of large estates to detect hidden income and assets, action against undeclared activity, review of companies that repeatedly report tax losses and credits carried forward, and employment relationships disguised as commercial ones, with their effects on VAT and personal income tax. Non-resident artists and athletes, and crypto-asset transactions, are also cited. The plan does not promise specific inspections but describes risk areas, and the Agency increasingly has data-analysis tools to decide whom to review.
The assistance side
The plan is not only about control. Among its novelties are a pilot of integrated digital assistance offices from the last quarter of the year, a census assistant for filing the registration and data-change return, and a system that will let advisers deal with the inspectorate remotely. The text stresses anticipating non-compliance with information and warnings rather than correcting it afterwards.
For the taxpayer, that philosophy has a practical consequence: the Agency cross-checks more and more data from different sources, and discrepancies between what has been declared and what it already knows are spotted sooner. Regularising on one’s own initiative usually costs less than waiting for a formal request, because surcharges for voluntary filing are lower than penalties. It is worth remembering that those surcharges grow with the time elapsed, so postponing the correction usually costs more than making it as soon as possible.
What to review
Companies with transactions between group entities or with shareholders and directors should check that the agreed prices can be justified and that documentation is up to date. It is also worth checking that tax losses and credits carried forward are properly supported and that relationships with outside collaborators do not resemble an employment relationship.
People with assets or activities abroad would do well to keep their information on tax residence, assets and income in order. If you spot an error, consult your adviser on the most suitable way to correct it before a communication from the Agency arrives. And if you receive a formal request, reply within the deadline and with the documents that support it: failing to respond usually makes the problem worse.
Knowing the Agency’s priorities is not for guessing inspections but for putting your house in order in good time.
This article is general information. It is not legal, tax or investment advice, and it does not take anyone’s particular circumstances into account.
