If as a taxpayer, you are registered in the mandatory system of electronic notifications of the Tax Agency, you should know that if you do not access the notifications of your “inbox” with a frequency of at least every ten days, the Treasury can sanction you with up to 600,000 euros of fine, because neglecting information requirements can mean resistance, obstruction, excuse or refusal to the actions of the Administration.
Recently we have been able to know that taxpayers included in the mandatory system of electronic notifications of the Tax Agency may be sanctioned with fines of up to 600,000 euros for not accessing the notifications of their inbox at least every ten days.
This has been established by the Central Economic– Administrative Tribunal (TEAC) in its resolution, which understands that disregarding notifications may involve “resistance, obstruction, excuse or refusal” to the actions of the Tax Administration, without it being necessary to prove the intention to circumvent the request sent. The only thing necessary will be that the request has been duly notified.
You can access the text of the TEAC resolution
Failure to comply with notified requirements is a serious violation
As established in Article 203 of the Tax Law, failure to meet requirements that have been duly notified is a serious infraction,and taxpayers could be sanctioned with fines from 150 to 600,000 euros,or a certain percent of the turnover of the infringer in the calendar year in which the breach occurred. The penalty will depend on the information requested in the request.
As we have mentioned before, the deadline set to access electronic notifications is ten calendar days from their communication.
In this way, the current resolution corrects the criterion set by the Regional Economic Administrative Tribunal (TEAR) of Madrid,which had recently annulled a sanction of 10,000 euros to a company for this same reason, which had been notified up to three times, but had not opened the notifications sent to its authorized electronic address within the period set of ten calendar days.
The TEAR argued that the taxpayer could not be sanctioned because he had no real knowledge of the unattended requirements, and that therefore there was no intention to hinder the Treasury.
What is the Tax Agency’s electronic notification service?
The Tax Agency has a service through which it sends notifications and administrative communications to taxpayers online,to an Enabled Electronic Address (DEH), for the entire General State Administration.
Here we must differentiate between two types of taxpayers:
- Companies:
In the case of companies, the system of electronic notifications of the Treasury is mandatory. The regulations establish that all Limited Liability Companies must benefit from the electronic notification system of the AEAT.
- Natural persons:
Those individuals registered in a business or professional activity, can request to receive electronic notifications from the Treasury in the inbox voluntarily.
A service that is shown as an excellent alternative to paper, which complies with the maximum guarantees of confidentiality, authenticity and privacy,in order to ensure the identity of the participants and communications.
In the case of natural persons, they may freely choose the notification procedures to which they wish to subscribe. At present, the procedures of the Tax Agency have been reduced to only two: the Management of VAT Refunds to non-residents and the Single Procedure of notifications of actions and procedures of the AEAT.
