Many times we hear about the Tax Agency, the Treasury, taxes, etc. Bad information about her almost always reaches us and inspires fear in many homes in Spain. This is because it is the state body in charge of collecting taxes. Briefly explaining what the Tax Agency is: It is the organization that makes us pay taxes.
Despite its bad reputation, the Tax Agency or Finance it is necessary to keep a country afloat so that it can continue to develop and prosper. If you are interested in this topic and want to inform yourself well about this entity, I recommend that you read this article.
Objectives of the Tax Agency
The primary goal of the tax system of any country is to collect taxes in order to satisfy all the needs of a population as a whole. This is carried out through basic services belonging to different areas such as education, health, transport, communication, etc. In other words: the taxes that citizens pay serve to maintain the socio-economic dynamics of a country through the different infrastructures that compose it.
Therefore, there are several activities that fall within the functions of the Tax Agency. Next we will see a list of the most outstanding ones:
- Inspection, collection and management of taxes corresponding to state ownership. This includes personal income tax (personal income tax), non-resident income tax, companies, special taxes and VAT (value added taxes).
- Various functions related to Income of the Cities and Autonomous Communities.
- Collection of the European Union's own income.
- Collaboration in prosecuting certain crimes, such as those related to the Public Treasury or smuggling.
- Collection of voluntary period of rates belonging to the State Public Sector.
In any case, there are two lines of action developed by the Tax Agency that serve to fulfill the tax obligations of each person or entity. In the first place, they offer assistance and information services to the taxpayer. In this way they minimize indirect costs. On the other hand They take various control measures to detect any tax breach.
Tax obligations of companies and freelancers
Today, any economic activity in Spain has to pay taxes. Thus, economic agents, that is, the self-employed and companies, are obliged to register with the Tax Agency when they are going to start an activity. This registry includes the regular declarations of some taxes such as personal income tax, Corporation Tax, VAT and other additional taxes.
In addition, Another function of the Tax Agency is to supervise the invoicing belonging to companies and freelancers at the tax level. Obviously, exclusive tax control is included. That is to say: Both companies and freelancers must account for all the taxes they obtain in their billing. The Tax Agency provides tax information to economic agents. An example of this are invoice templates and their contents. It also provides information about the different personal income tax and VAT regimes, since these two have an important effect on the way companies and the self-employed are taxed.
The income statement
The most common way of paying taxes by the citizen or taxpayer is through the income statement. For this reason, it is very important to know the necessary documentation that must be presented to the Tax Agency. Also, it helps to know what can be deducted and what is subject to deductions. There are also possibilities of payment deferrals that the taxpayer can take advantage of depending on the situation. We must not forget that there is a certain period to complete this procedure to which we must adhere if we do not want to have problems.
Luckily we now have many technological advances that facilitate, among other things, the administration and management of all the bureaucratic procedures involved in tax obligations. The digital age brings a lot of help and more access to both information and the management of all processes. Even the Tax Agency has taken advantage of this advance, putting into service an interactive platform. This portal provides all the information about the procedures that have to be carried out and how it should be done. We can find it on the official website of the Tax Agency.
Another help that this organization offers us from its online site is a direct access to the resolution of doubts. There they answer all questions related to paying taxes. This greatly simplifies some processes that may seem very complex due to lack of information. In addition, they offer the option of making a prior appointment to be able to file the income statement.
I hope this article has been useful for you to find out what the Tax Agency is.