The general guidelines proposed in the Annual Tax and Customs Control Plan promote new administrative cooperation figures, considered a necessary part of the Transfer Pricing strategy 360°. In this regard, Law 13/2023 (Provision 12204, n°124 of 2023) was published in the Official Gazette, amending the General Tax Law to transpose the EU Directive 2021/514 on administrative cooperation.
Concept
This Directive introduces a new figure of advanced administrative cooperation, referred to as joint inspection. It is the performance of joint actions according to a plan or agreement between tax administrations but without involving a common administrative procedure with interested parties. The joint inspection actions will be previously agreed upon and coordinated.
Other Forms of Administrative Cooperation
Previously, some forms of administrative cooperation were already regulated, providing advantages generally in the inspection or control activity.
Firstly, participation in administrative investigations (PAOE) is a unilateral interest and can be resolved immediately by visiting the offices of another Administration to gather or obtain the necessary information. It occurs when an Administration needs information already available or action to be performed by another Administration in another jurisdiction to obtain information that the former cannot, or would be postponed in time, to obtain adequately with a request.
Secondly, simultaneous control involves situations of common or complementary interest in persons or entities in two or more Administrations. This works through control actions carried out by each Administration, which facilitate an exchange of information on their findings.
Currently, national inspections continue and are the only ones that can establish a tax debt, although there are advances regarding the common action consisting of this joint inspection, which should not be confused with the actual national inspection action.
National International Taxation Office
The National International Taxation Office is the inspecting body in charge of coordinating this type of action.
Source: Agencia Tributaria
