If the deadlines for the publication of the new Order are met, entrepreneurs will be able to submit the model between February 1 and 28, as was established before the modification of November 2018.
Following several meetings between the self-employed federations and the Ministry of Finance, the latter has decided to back down on its intentions to bring forward the deadline for submitting the annual declaration of transactions with third parties to January.
To this end, it has undertaken to issue an order to annul the previous one (Order HFP/1106/2017) which was approved in November of last year and which was rejected from the beginning by the employers. In this way, it will be possible to present the 347 declaration in February 2019.
According to the Treasury, the order has already been drafted and is awaiting publication in the BOE, meaning that if the deadlines are met, self-employed workers would be given a break by returning to the submission deadlines prior to the aforementioned order, that is, from 1 to 28 February.
This change of position by the government is the result of the meetings held by the National Federation of Associations of Self-Employed Workers-ATA and the FETTAF with the Ministry of Finance where both organizations demanded that the deadlines for submitting this declaration be maintained in February so as not to cause a collision and a collapse with the rest of the declarations that the self-employed have to submit in January.
The aforementioned form includes the annual declaration of transactions with third parties for amounts exceeding 3,005 euros and cash payments of more than 6,000 euros, which affects a large majority of Spanish businesses, with a few exceptions.
As for the time frame, the president of FETAFF believes that it will not be until the General Budget for 2019 is finalised with Brussels, when it will be published in the BOE. However, it should occur “at the latest in November so that the affected taxpayers can organise themselves”.
No margin
Since the order was published in November 2017, tax advisors and ATA have warned of the complexity and risks of the advance. “Form 347 requires comparing information with suppliers and customers. It is impossible to contact each and every one of them in the mere 20 working days of January, even more so when invoices are being issued until December 31,” Torres said. This would have generated “a multitude of errors when submitting the information, which in many cases would be incomplete, which could even lead to sanctions.” As a consequence, the Tax Agency would also be affected “the number of supplementary and substitute declarations would multiply considerably.”
REAF-REGAF (the body representing tax advisers within the General Council of Economists) also expressed its opposition to the advance of the deadline for submission, as it meant an additional administrative obstacle for taxpayers to comply with their tax obligations. Among the objections they submitted to the department then headed by Cristóbal Montoro were the huge number of self-assessments and information declarations that self-employed workers, professionals and companies have to submit during the month of January, the complexity of collecting the information mechanically or the obligation to prepare a profit and loss account by entities under an attribution regime, for which, in addition, it must be taken into account that the maximum deadline for submitting invoices ends on January 15 of the following year.
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