Deferments for self-employed workers: VAT and IRPF

By: Josep Navarro

Deferments for self-employed workers: VAT and IRPF

Measures of Royal Decree-Law 3/2016 in matters of deferred payment Royal Decree-Law 3/2016, of 2 December, eliminated the option of granting deferred payment or split payment of specific tax debts, including split payment of Corporation Tax and that derived from taxes, such as VAT, which must be legally added, unless it can be shown that the added payments have not been paid.

Processing of deferred payment in accordance with Royal Decree-Law 3/2016

Applications for deferred payment or split-payment of debts affected by this measure will be rejected, while the remaining applications will be processed according to their amount, in accordance with the established procedure, which has not been modified by the Royal Decree-Law. Thus, applications for deferred payment or split-payment regarding debts for a total amount equal to or less than 30,000 euros will not need to provide guarantees, and will be processed via an automated process. Applications for a higher total amount must provide the appropriate guarantees and will be processed by means of an ordinary non-automated process.

The limit exempt from providing guarantees was raised in October 2015 from 18,000 euros to the current 30,000 euros. Impact of the measure on self-employed workers With regards self-employed workers, the measure regarding split-payment of Corporation Tax does not affect them, given that they are taxed in Personal Income Tax. The measure on added VAT affects them, and they can continue to request deferred payment and split-payment of VAT if they can accredit that these added payments have not been collected. Therefore, the main change for self-employed workers will be that they are required to accredit that they have not collected the added VAT payments, specifically in requests that exceed the limit exempt of guarantees.

As a result, self-employed workers may request deferred payment, regardless of the amount, of their Personal Income Tax and VAT in the following circumstances, according to the total amount of the debt:

1. If the requests refer to a debt, the total amount of which is equal to or less than 30,000 euros, deferred payment will be granted, without guarantees, of up to 12 monthly payments, unless the payer has requested fewer monthly payments, in which case, the number of instalments requested will be granted. The periodicity of the payments will be monthly. They are processed by means of an automated mechanism.

2. If the requests refer to a debt, the total amount of which is over 30,000 euros, deferred payment will be granted, according to the type of guarantee provided by the debtor, and for a maximum term of 36 monthly payments, unless the payer has requested fewer monthly payments, in which case, the number of instalments requested will be granted. If the debts are for VAT, it will also be necessary to accredit that the VAT payments added have not been paid.

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