The honor requires more employees to be able to respond to tax inquiries from corporations
In mid-2019, the channel through which companies convey their doubts about the implementation of the tax regulations to the Ministry of Finance collapsed to prevent potential disputes from having to be resolved later in the courts. more than Backlog of 3,000 unanswered inquiries In the incoming mail of the Sub-Directorate of the General Directorate of Taxes responsible for resolving problems related to corporate tax, while companies, expropriated in desperation, were forced to blindly apply their own interpretations of the rule or in the worst cases abandoned projects and investments so as not to expose themselves to the risks of subsequent tax inspection.
The collapse forced the Finance Ministry to implement an emergency mechanism to try to clear pending inquiries and imposed internal reflection to try to find a way that would allow it to respond to tax inquiries from companies, on which they often depend on billions of euros in investments. four years later, The personnel shortage that led to this situation has not been fully resolved. This was accepted on Thursday by the Director General of Taxes, María José Garde, during a discussion titled “Honoring, Legal Certainty and Institutional Engineering”, organized by the Impresa Institute, the law firm Perez-Yourca and the consulting firm LLyC.
“We have enough tools to give legal certainty to companies, but it is true The means at our disposal are not enough And companies are increasingly demanding more certainty, ”admitted the person in charge of the engine room at the Ministry of Finance, where most of the tax regulations and standards to be applied have been drawn up.
Garde held back that “creative” solutions are necessary that allow, for example, to resolve corporate tax uncertainties about large businesses before they are formalized or that, for example, Strengthening the teams of the General Directorate of Taxes Responsible for responding to inquiries from companies.
The person in charge of tax recognized that often times problems arise during the regulation-making process, who admitted they could be more cooperative and transparent. Professor at Uppsala University in Sweden, Bertil Weimann, explained in detail what the process of approving tax legislation looks like in Sweden, where the government’s initiative is modified by the obligatory participation of groups of experts, interest groups and even a committee of experts from the judicial field looking into possible legal problems that may be encountered by the laws. new taxes.
Enhance legal certainty in tax laws
A model that, according to the spokesperson for large companies in the forum that it shares with the tax agency and global head of the tax area of Iberdrola, Begoña García Rozado, could be applicable in Spain, for example Participate in the process of drafting tax laws for the Constitutional Courtto avoid approving rules that are born with the flaws of unconstitutionality, as many experts look at what happened with the new taxes on banks, energy and great wealth.
“The procedure for approving tax legislation is very distinct in Spain, but then we find things like taxes that are approved through a bill or an amendment,” García Rosado explained. It also requested more means for the Directorate General of Taxes to enhance legal certainty for companies in complying with their tax obligations.
