Important changes have been published in the SII obligation by the Spanish tax authorities. It is expected that there will be an increase in the number of files being rejected as of October 2019, however, the XML schema will not change.
Businesses must ensure data meets the new requirements.
An overview of the main changes on the checks made by the Spanish tax authorities can be found here.
A feature which gives you the ability to test files with the new requirements has also been introduced on the Spanish authorities’ website as of 1 July, in the testing platform.
Taxpayers are required to correct the files in the category, ‘accepted with errors’ within six weeks from the date of submission, however, such corrections are often overlooked, resulting in questions from the tax authorities which is wasting tax authority time. A plan is underway by the Spanish authorities to create a tool to prepare the draft VAT return automatically, therefore it is necessary to ensure that data is accurate when this tool is implemented.
What can businesses do to prepare?
It has been recommended by the Spanish authorities to test all files sent to the tax authorities throughout July and August against the new requirements of the testing platform. The answer from the authorities should be reviewed and the action should be taken to avoid penalties for long processing times on error messages received from the tax authorities post-October.
Files are not considered as submitted by the tax authorities if they are rejected. If appropriate action is not adhered to within the 4-day time limit, late filing penalties will apply to you.
For the past two years, these penalties did not apply, however, SII have started applying these recently. The ‘due date calculator’ which is available on the Spanish SII tax authorities website, provides you with the ability to calculate the exact deadline for each invoice.
