End of the suspension of tax deadlines and new developments in Corporate Tax

On 27 May, Royal Decree Law 19/2020, of 21 April, was published in the Official State Gazette (BOE), adopting complementary measures in agricultural, scientific, economic, employment and social security and tax matters to alleviate the effects of COVID-19, which came into force yesterday.

The regulation approves different measures of economic scope in different sectors and modifies some measures in the tax and commercial area.

1. Corporate Income Tax
   

   The deadlines for filing the 2019 tax return have been maintained, so that companies whose fiscal year coincides with the calendar year must file the return from 1 to 25 July.

   If, as a result of the extension of the deadline for approving the annual accounts that have also been approved, the company does not have the final accounts within the deadline, it may use the “available annual accounts”. For these purposes, the audited accounts will be considered as available for listed companies and, for all others, the audited accounts – if they are required to be audited or have been audited – or the accounts prepared. However, if the accounts have not been drawn up, which could be the case since the deadline is 31 August, with the accounts being kept in accordance with the Commercial Code

   This may result in the income tax presented on the basis of the “available financial statements” differing from that approved, and therefore, exceptionally, the possibility of presenting a new return, up to a maximum of 30 November 2020, is enabled.

   The cases arising from the presentation of the new declaration are also subject to regulation, depending on the result of the new declaration, which we will analyse in each case.

   • The new declaration will result in a higher or lower payment to be made than the original one: It will be treated as a complementary declaration, generating interest for this amount from the end of the original period.
   • The new declaration results in a lower amount to be paid or a higher amount to be returned: It will have the qualification of rectification but without the effects of the rectifying self-assessments, that is, basically without the generation of delay interest.
   • However, if the result of the second declaration is to be returned and it was paid in the original declaration, the interest on the return will be accrued from the first deadline.
   • It should be noted that in the new self-assessment, the options may be modified or exercised as in any declaration submitted within the time limit.

2. Postponement of self-assessment payments due to the health crisis
   

   Taxpayers with a transaction volume of less than 6,010,121.04 euros, who have availed themselves of the deferrals without guarantees of the self-assessments whose period ends between 13 March and 30 May, regulated by article 14 of Royal Decree Law 7/2020, may benefit from the nonaccrual of interest during the first 4 months (initially only the first 3 months).

3. Exemption of documented legal acts from deeds to facilitate the deferment of debts
   

   The deeds of formalization of certain legal and conventional moratoriums derived from the measures to alleviate the Covid-19, to facilitate the deferment of debts are declared exempt from the gradual quota of notarial documents of the modality of Documented Legal Acts.

4. List of defaulters to the Treasury

   The deadline for the publication of the Order containing the list of defaulters on 31 December 2019 – which was the first half of 2020 at the latest – has been extended to 1 October this year.

5. Annual Accounts
   

   The deadline for the presentation of the annual accounts, which was extended by Royal Decree-Law 8/2020, is again modified so that the resumption of the suspension period will be calculated as from 1 June, so that companies and entities with a natural year must have formulated them by 31 August at the latest.

   As regards the deadline for the General Meeting to approve the annual accounts, which had been set at 3 months from the end of the period for formulating the accounts, it is now set at 2 months. Thus, entities that ended their financial year on 31 December last will have until 31 October 2020 to hold the meeting to approve the accounts.

Furthermore, as we indicated in our previous tax AddFLASH, Royal Decree Law 15/2020 of 21 April on urgent complementary measures to support the economy and employment modified the tax deadlines previously extended by Article 33 of Royal Decree Law 8/2020 and in Additional Provisions 8 and 9 of Royal Decree Law 11/2020, they were moved to 30 May.

This provision will mean that the following deadlines and actions will be extended until 30 May:

• Payment of debts settled by the Administration, whether voluntary or compulsory, that were notified before or after March 14. The due date will be later if so indicated in the notification.
• Expiry of the terms of the deferment agreements notified before or after 14 March. The expiry will be later only if so indicated in the notification.
• Deadlines for making claims, responding to requests and other communications from both the tax authorities and the General Directorate of Cadastre, unless the communication expires after that date.

Given that 30 May is a Saturday, all those procedures that must be responded to by next Monday 1 June (Tuesday 2 for those towns where Monday is a holiday) must be reviewed.

In addition, it should be remembered that the following deadlines will be resumed:

• The deadline for appealing in replacement or for appealing or claiming in an economic-administrative procedure will start on 30 May.
• The Administration may not execute guarantees on real estate between 14 March and 30 May.
• The period between 14 March and 30 May will not be taken into account when calculating the maximum period of time for tax application, sanctioning and review procedures.
• The periods of prescription and expiry are suspended between 14 March and 30 May.
• The period between 14 March and 30 May is not included in the maximum period for executing the economic-administrative resolutions.

AddVANTE remains at your disposal for further information or to resolve any doubts that may arise in relation to this article.