PERSONAL INCOME TAX AND FURLOUGH Ferrer Asociados

Important information for taxpayers affected by an furlough (erte) during 2020

I. If you have received payments from an ERTE,

you will be interested to know the following.

Given the situation experienced during 2020 due to COVID-19, many of you may have found yourself in furlough (ERTE) situation.

If you have found yourself in this situation, you should take into account that the perceptions received while you were in ERTE, must be considered income from work subject to personal income tax and not exempt, for this reason, you may be forced to submit the Personal Income Tax Return statement, due to having had two payers (your regular payor and the SEPE).

As a reminder, those required submit the Personal Income Tax Return statement are the persons whose incomes from work exceeds of € 22,000 per year, but the limit is reduced to € 14,000 per year when there are two or more payers and the amount received from the second and remaining payers exceeds of € 1,500.

On the other hand, it is also possible that you have received non-proceeding payments from the SEPE, that is, the SEPE made improper incomes payments. Apparently, the SEPE was making payments for a higher amount than it corresponded, so now is requesting a refund of the said amounts. The amounts overpaid by the SEPE will also have an impact on the personal income tax return, so we advise that these payments must be declared correctly.

Therefore, if you have received improper payments from the SEPE, and has not been regularized during 2020, three scenarios may occur:

1.- That the SEPE has started the regularization procedure and you have already returned what you were overpaid in 2020, in which case you must tell us so that we can take it into account in case your tax data has not been modified.

2.- That the SEPE has started the regularization procedure, but you have not yet returned the amount that you overcharged, in which case you must also indicate it to us so that we can verify it when making your statement.

3.- That the SEPE has not started the regularization procedure. In this case, the Tax Agency will not know the exact amount that you must return. Therefore, if you are sure you know how much you received from the SEPE improperly, you must notify us and we will proceed to regularize it on your income statement. But, if you do not know the amount you have to return, you have the following options:

a) Wait for the Income Tax Return campaign to advance to see if the SEPE notifies you the amount that you have to refund, (the campaign will end on June 30th, so you must pay attention so that the term does not end).

b) Request this information from the SEPE. In our opinion, it is the most advisable, since we can submit the declaration according to the exact data.

c) Pay tax for the excess and subsequently request a rectification of the return and recover the amount overpaid. In this case, we believe that it is the most disadvantageous for you, given that you will have to pay taxes as if you had won an amount that, in fact, you will have to pay back. Then, when you return it, you must submit a rectification of the self-assessment so that the Tax Agency will refund the amount of taxes that you overpaid. In this case, it is an unnecessary outlay and, in addition, double work, since you will have to submit two statements: a first statement in which you will declare the total received (including what you were improperly paid) and a second statement later to rectify the first (in which you will only include the amount that should have been received, and not the part improperly received).

EXTRAORDINARY FRACTIONATION FOR TAXPAYERS AFFECTED BY AN ERTE

II. Possibility of deferring the payment of the tax if you have been in ERTE in 2020.

On the other hand, it has been published in the BOE the Order HAC / 320/2021, of April 6, this order gives the facility to people who have been affected by an ERTE during 2020 to postpone their declaration in six terms, with payments on the 20th of each month, beginning on July 20th and the last on December 20th 2021, without interest and without the need to provide guarantees.

This payment is incompatible with the division in two instalments of 60% and 40%, you must choose one of this two.

Article written by  Natalia Gonzalo

Accounting Technician

Ferrer Asociados Estudio Jurídico y Económico