Once the 2022 Income Statement has begun, taxpayers begin to prepare the information necessary to carry out this mandatory annual procedure, as is the case with the draft. In total, the Tax Agency expects to receive 22.9 million statements in this campaign. More than 700,000 taxpayers were quick to file their return within the first few hours of the campaign.
For the rest, there is still time until June 30, when the term ends. For now the option available is through the Internet. For those who want to help by phone, they must wait until May 5, while from June 1 you can go to the offices of the Tax Agency to present the Income statement. Always by appointment.
Preparing the Income statement is not an easy process and many decide to resort to external help. Beyond the clothing offered by the Treasury, resorting to an agency is also common. In this way, many taxpayers delegate the responsibility of collecting the information and delivering the documents on time. The problem arises when the declaration is delivered with errors, whose responsibility is it?
Errors in the Income statement carry penalties
With regard to the Treasury, each taxpayer is responsible for submitting their Income Statement and, therefore, theirs is the responsibility for errors that have consequences. In other words, the Tax Agency will claim economic sanctions from the holder of the declaration. The exception is when there is a legal representative, established through a notary.
However, the injured party may claim responsibility from the agency. Specifically, from the Law You portal they explain that he may “demand tax, criminal and civil liability.” The General Tax Law recognizes the figure of “jointly responsible”, among others those who “are the cause of or actively collaborate in carrying out a tax offense”.
In this case, their responsibility will also extend to the tax debt that the penalty entails, although there is no unanimity in the judgments on this issue.
How to modify the statement?
Once the declaration has been filed, the taxpayer still has the possibility of modifying it. To carry out this procedure, the Tax Agency distinguishes whether there is economic damage for the taxpayer or for the Treasury. In the first place, if the errors or omission of information cause economic damage to the taxpayer, that is, the amount to be returned must be greater or less, the rectification of the declaration can be requested.
This rectification cannot be requested “if the Administration had already carried out a provisional or final liquidation for the error or omission that you are going to rectify, or if the four-year limitation period had already elapsed”. Another option for the taxpayer is to request the rectification of the income statement through an appeal or request for rectification.
On the other hand, when the amount to be returned must be less than or greater than the amount to be paid, the taxpayer must submit a supplementary return. Both procedures – the rectification or the complementary declaration – are available through the WEB Income service.
Specifically, you must check the request box and directly modify the data in the declaration presented at the time. In the case of the complementary declaration, it must be indicated and it implies a new self-assessment that must include -together with the information that was already included in the declaration- the correct data or modify the errors.
To make any type of modification to a declaration already filed, the limitation period must be taken into account. The General Tax Law sets it at four years. After that period, money cannot be claimed from the Treasury, but the State cannot claim it from taxpayers either.
