Amendment of the General Taxation Law (RD-Law 22/2020)

Amendment of the General Taxation Law (RD-Law 22/2020)

Posted on Jul 07, 2020

Some days ago, it was published in the RD-Law 22/2020 dated 16th June, the amendment of the General Taxation Law (GTL) to allow to carry out tax inspections through digital systems, due to the COVID-19 crisis.

The first final provision of Law in the mentioned RD-lax, amends two Articles of the GTL.

Law 58/2003 of 27th December, General Taxation, is amended as follows:

First.  A new section 9 is introduced in Article 99 with the following wording:

«9.  The actions of the Tax Administration and the taxpayers in the procedures for applying the taxes may be carried out through digital systems that, through videoconference or another similar system, allow bidirectional and simultaneous communication of image and sound, visual interaction, auditory and verbal between the taxpayers and the acting body, and guarantee the safe transmission and reception of the documents that, where appropriate, collect the result of the actions carried out, ensuring their authorship, authenticity and integrity.

The use of these systems will occur when determined by the Tax Administration and will require the agreement of the taxpayer in relation to their use and the date and time of their development. »

Second.  A new letter e) is inserted in section 1 of article 151 with the following wording:

«e) In the places indicated in the previous letters or elsewhere, when said actions are carried out through the digital systems provided for in article 99.9 of this Law. The use of said systems will require the consent of the taxpayer."

In summary, the tax inspections may be carried out, as customary until the present date or through any of the digital systems provided for in the recently amended Article, as determined by the Tax Authorities.