Spain – Latest VAT News

Taxpayers have the possibility to opt for the application of this new regime recently approved, which allows to avoid VAT payments at the moment of the import of goods and defer them to the subsequent month by including them in the VAT return referred to the month in which imports have been performed. From a practical perspective, this special regime entitles taxpayers to avoid cash payments linked to VAT quotes at the moment of the import by allowing its VAT deduction in the tax return filed within the next month to that in which the import took place.

In order to apply such special tax regime, several requirements must be fulfilled, among which are the following:

– only taxpayers filing monthly VAT returns are eligible

– the option must be exercised during the month of November to be applicable the following year

New thresholds to report EU transactions for statistical purposes (Intrastat report) 

As of January 1st, 2015, new thresholds have been approved for filing EU transactions for Intrastat purposes: 400.000€ is the new threshold approved for entries such as for deliveries, whereas 250.000€ was the threshold applicable until 2014. This implies a significant reduction of the administrative burden for small and medium entities, which will be no longer obliged to file this statistical report.

New rules applicable for Travel Agencies:

Special VAT regime applied to Travel Agencies has been modified to make it more flexible. As from January 2015, taxpayers applying this regime may opt to apply general VAT rules instead to specific transactions provided the recipient of the services is entitled to the VAT deduction or VAT refund. This change has been introduced aimed to adapt Spanish VAT regulations to VAT regulations applicable in other EU Member States.