Approval of the Inmediate Provision of Information (SII) for VAT in Spain. Royal Decree 596/2016 of December 2, 2017
Finally and after a pause of a few months, last December 6th was published in the Spanish Official Gazette the Royal Decree 596/20016, of December 2nd, for the modernization, improvement and promotion of the use of electronic means in the management of the Value Added Tax, better known as the Immediate Provision of Information (SII) in VAT.
This project, whose entry into force was originally foreseen for January 1, 2017, was postponed due to political circumstances in Spain, having finally resumed with the beginning of the last legislature and whose new entry into force is set for July 1st, 2017, that is, six months later. However, before January 1st, 2018, taxable persons obliged to comply with the new electronic registration requirements, as well as those who voluntarily opt for this choice, must report their records related to the period from January 1 to June 30, 2017.
The obligations arising with the SII obligatorily cover to all VAT taxpayers who are in a monthly period of liquidation for VAT, which comes to be those that are large companies, those that are within the monthly VAT refund scheme or those who form a VAT group. In any case, those who are not obliged to comply with the electronic registration but voluntarily opt will be subject to a monthly liquidation period also.
The change introduced by the SII is essentially the obligation to keep the VAT Ledgers established in the VAT Regulation through the electronic website of the Spanish Tax Authorities, by means of electronic filling in of the Ledgers by means of a web service or through an electronic form whose registration fields will be approved by Ministerial Order.
The information that will be necessary to provide, besides the usual already included in the VAT Ledgers (invoice date, customer or supplier identification, taxable base, etc.), will involve new fields such as description of transactions, reference of the rectified invoice, settlement period of transactions, deductible VAT quota in the case of invoices received, as well as other occasional items. However, in order to facilitate the registration, a summary entry may be made, stating:
– The date or period in which they were issued.
– Global tax base for each tax rate.
– Tax rates.
– The global quota of invoices numbered consecutively and issued on the same date.
– The initial and final numbers of the invoices.
– If the transactions have been carried out in accordance with the special scheme of the cash criterion.
However, these summary entries will only be possible if two requirements are met simultaneously: that for invoices issued are not obligatory the identification of the recipient and that the accrual of the transactions has taken place within the same natural month. In short, the summary entries can be made for the issuance of tickets or simplified invoices within the same natural month.
Although the electronic provision of the registers is something that could be expected as a way of modernizing VAT, where the main complication arises for taxpayers who are forced to comply with this system is within the period available to make such electronic registrations. In this sense, as a general rule a period of four calendar days has been established since the invoice was issued (although Saturdays, Sundays and national holidays will not be taken into account) and for invoices received of four calendar days from the date on the registration in the accounting records. Exceptionally for the fiscal year 2017 the period of four days will be eight days.
In any case, it seems that a door is left open to soften these deadlines, since the rule states that, in any case, for invoices issued the online registration must be made before the 16th day of the month following the accrual, while for Invoices received shall be before the 16th day of the month following the liquidation period in which they were included.
Finally, as a counterpart to this new obligation of immediate information, taxable persons subject to the obligation to submit VAT Forms 347, 390 and 340 are no longer obliged to comply with this. In addition, the deadline for filing VAT returns is extended until the last day of the month.
Attached is a copy of the Royal Decree 596/2016.
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