The Tax Office in Spain wants everyone to know they are out there. Lately there’s something in the press almost on a daily basis warning those brave enough to defraud the system that inspectors are stepping up their investigations in order to find them. And it seems that they are leaving very few places for evaders to hide.
The latest news is that as well as focusing on small and medium businesses, particularly in the construction or hostelry sector, as reported by On the Pulse last week, Hacienda inspectors will also begin to scrutinise the ‘digital economy’.
The tax office defines the digital economy as “all those businesses and people associated with activities solely conducted on or through the Internet.”
So, inspectors will be gathering data and investigating all the information on the Internet related to offering services, products, or a business.
It is possible that anyone advertising their business or services online could be paid a visit by inspectors or have their books and accounts examined.
Hacienda officials will be looking for people who are not paying tax – or not paying enough of it. Those working illegally, as in by not contributing to the system by way of social security payments, will also be under fire.
The tax office explains that it has to use different methods of investigation in order to keep up with the different methods used nowadays to conduct business.
As the Internet has become a major tool in how business is obtained and carried out, so too must Hacienda adapt in the same way.
Inspectors are aware of the new types of fiscal fraud that can occur when dedicated to an online business.
Hacienda will pay particular attention to businesses that carry out work for clients abroad, and have accounts abroad also, as well as those companies that appear to be foreign, but are actually Spanish – and should be paying tax in Spain.
But, it’s not just the ‘little people’ that are going to be targeted by Hacienda’s inspectors; multinationals will also receive ‘special attention’ from the tax investigators, especially those that invoice losses to get out of paying tax in Spain, and other ‘legal’ strategies large global companies use for the same purposes.
Hacienda will still go ahead with plans in 2014 to develop a National Office of International Tax Law in order to stop practices that abuse internal and external fiscal regulations.
Not only will inspectors closely examine accounts and invoices for irregularities, they will also look for external signs of wealth that look incompatible to the amount of earnings claimed.
720 Model
Hacienda has also announced that this year it will make use of the information provided in the 720 Model in which fiscal residents in Spain have declared their assets abroad worth 50,000 euro or more.
Officials will specifically be searching for possible undeclared earnings from those assets and profits made for the owner, who is not paying tax on them.
If discovered, the tax office will proceed with embargos on offenders’ assets abroad.
Illegal rentals
It has also been revealed that inspectors will be out and about on the streets in a bid to uncover apartments that are being rented out illegally – i.e.: without declaring the earnings to the tax office and paying tax.
Other priorities
The Agencia Tributaria will be busy this year with so many priorities on its list. Here are some of the other activities that will be targeted this year:
- Benefits and subventions
- Undeclared earnings, working on the black market
- Spanish companies registered in fiscal havens
- Cigarette and tobacco contraband
Source: www.expansion.com
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