Governmental Tax and Customs Annual Plan for 2022

Through this informative note we highlight the most relevant aspects of surveillance and control in indirect taxation (customs, VAT, excise duties and environmental taxes) on which the Spanish Tax Agency will direct its attention in tax compliance during 2022.

Notwithstanding the foregoing, as a preamble, we consider it relevant to point out the following issues with general tax significance:

• The actions mentioned in the Control Plan contain the lines of action in matters of prevention and control in tax compliance, as well as the variables that will integrate the scope in the preventive and corrective verification by the Tax Agency.
• The use of the “warning letters” technique aimed at those taxpayers with the possibility of incurring tax risks will be increased, in accordance with the parameters defined by the Tax Agency
• In 2022, a risk coordination area will be created within Tax Management, in which Regional Tax Management Units and the Department of Financial and Tax Inspection will participate
• The verification actions will be aimed primarily at multinational groups, large companies and tax groups that belong to the sectors of activity that have been least affected by the crisis derived from COVID-19
• The face-to-face action of the Tax Agency will be reinforced at the facilities of the taxpayers

Next, we identify the risk profiles and list the control activities that will be verified during this fiscal year 2022, in customs and indirect taxation:

Customs

• Verification and investigation of imports of consumer products, textiles and others of Asian origin
• Special verification of the documentation attached to the SADs filed at customs
• The number of visits to establishments that operate under customs authorizations will be increased, in particular, temporary storage warehouses, customs warehouses, authorized shippers and recipients, authorized economic operators (AEO) and operators authorized to operate other special regimes
• Voluntary compliance: special attention will be paid to new importers in order to accompany them in guaranteeing tax compliance
• Exhaustive checks on the customs value: -i- conspicuously low values, -ii- provisional values, -iii- value between related parties, and, -iv- adjustments to the customs value as a result of the application of the pricing policy of transfer
• Verification of preferential origin aimed mainly at those imports made with preferential origin United Kingdom
• Control in the elements that determine the customs debt: tariff classification, preferential origin, customs duties, customs exemptions and antidumping duties
• Compliance with non-tariff regulations and commercial policy measures: -i- licenses and authorizations, -ii- defense material and dual-use technologies
• Control of electronic commerce operations
• Work will continue to operate the European Single Window with electronic connection between all the authorities of the EU Member States

VAT

• The maintenance and updating of the VAT Virtual Assistants and the Immediate Information Supply system -SII- will continue.
• Control of those taxpayers covered by the special regime of the group of VAT entities through the SII and the PRE322 system -soon to be developed-
• Continuous control through the crossing of information provided by the SII
• Control of the retail sector for possible avoidance of the equivalence surcharge
• The data contained in the census of intra-community operators (VIES) will be verified
• Intra-community operations linked to the first deliveries after imports of electrical material and components (not covered by the taxpayer’s investment) will be subject to control
• Special monitoring of intra-community VAT operations in the vehicle sector
• Control of the settlement system underlying electronic commerce and whose effective application involves courier companies
• Controls will continue in the reimbursement of input VAT on purchases of goods made by non-resident travelers in the territory of application of the tax
• Controls on the management of warehouses other than customs and on the goods linked to them
• As of the first quarter of 2022, operators not bound by the SII will be offered the possibility of preparing form 303 based on the information contained in their record books -under a standardized format- within the PRE303 project
• New customs and VAT declaration model for e-commerce transactions made by final consumers in third countries

Excised Duties and Environmental Taxes

• The movement and stock of products in factories, bonded warehouses and bonded warehouses will be controlled through Stock Accounting -SILICIE-
• Control of wholesale and retail operators in the hydrocarbon sector
• Control and investigation of operators in the alcohol and derived beverages sector that operate under fiscal warehouses and warehouses other than customs
• Exhaustive control in the supporting documentation of the application of suspensive regimes and exemptions in terms of Excise Duties and Environmental taxes
• Verifications of the tax bases, tax rates, exemptions and assumptions of non-subjection, with special attention to the Excise Duty on Certain Means of Transport
• Registrations and declarations regarding the Excise Duty on Electricity
• Verifications to importers and resellers regarding compliance with the Tax on Fluorinated Greenhouse Gases
• Verifications on dates and amounts charged in the self-assessments for the purposes of the Tax on the Value of the Production of Electric Energy
• Checks on the obligations of the Excise Duty on Coal, Taxes on the Production of Nuclear Fuel and Radioactive Waste

How can we assist you?

We recommend anticipating tax compliance in domestic and international transactions with tax significance, and in particular, those on which the Spanish Tax Agency predicts imminent verification actions.

Salinas & Partners, with more than 30 years of experience in indirect taxation and verification, preventive and corrective actions, we are at your disposal for any questions or comments that may arise.