The Treasury has to return the income to more than 420,000 taxpayers and must pay them with this interest

The Treasury has to return the income to more than 420,000 taxpayers and must pay them with this interest

The Tax Agency, throughout 2024, returned more than 12.9 billion euros to more than 15.8 million taxpayers who submitted the Income Tax return corresponding to the 2023 financial year. However, this does not mean that they have “complied” with all. In fact, there are still a total of 427,023 taxpayers who have not received their corresponding refund. And, therefore, they should receive it if it is correct with late payment interest.

This is what TaxDown has made known, according to the data offered by the Treasury itself, and which leaves Spanish taxpayers with a question: why haven’t they returned my income yet? The most likely case, this advice explains, is that the refund has not yet been paid because is undergoing a particular check or review.

However, in the case of the statements of the self-employedthe Tax Agency usually goes one step further and analyzes possible irregularities in the communication of income or expenses or carry out verifications when these expenses do not correspond to the corresponding professional activity. There may also be incorrect data (with possible fines of up to 30,000 euros), income that does not correspond to what the Treasury manages, or expenses that have not been reflected. Regarding this, they warn that the list of reasons for this verification can be very varied.

What interest does the Treasury have to pay me for the delay in the return of the Income?

As explained by TaxDown tax expert, Aitor Fernández, “although it is not common for the Treasury to be delayed, sometimes it happens. In fact, the Personal Income Tax Law itself provides for this delay in its article 103, which explains that the payment will be made “within six months following the end of the period established for submitting the return.”

That is, the Treasury must have formalized the payment of the refunds by January 1, 2024. However, in the event that the declaration had been submitted after the deadline, these six months would be computed from the date of its presentation (for so they would not have to pay it before January 1).

That said, in the event that the Tax Agency is delayed, it must pay late payment interestwhich will be from 4.0625% annually from the date on which that six-month period expires until the date on which payment is ordered. This interest percentage is set by the Government through the General State Budgets and varied last year for the first time since 2016, going from 3.75% to 4.06%.

In any case, the advice explains that “all taxpayers will receive a notification from the Treasury informing them of the late payment interest that corresponds in each case.”

How to check the status of our income return

If we want to check the status of the return of our Income Tax return, we can do so through the Electronic Headquarters of the Tax Agency, through its Income 2023 section. This service can be accessed with the electronic certificate, the PIN code or with the reference number of the draft Income Tax.

When doing so, we can find different statuses: “Your declaration is being processed”, “Your declaration is being verified” or “Your declaration has been processed by the Tax Management bodies”, are the most common. Now, depending on the final processing of the application, different cases may arise.

On the one hand, that the result ends up being payable and not returned. If so, there may or may not be a penalty for the taxpayer depending on the type of error that generated this discrepancy in the result. On the other hand, it may happen that the result is to be returned but less than what was declared the taxpayer.

In the latter case, the Tax Agency would have to pay interest but only for the part resulting from the settlement. That is, if 300 euros were requested and the taxpayer finally receives a refund of 50 euros, these interests will apply only to the final amount owed, they explain from TaxDown.

Lastly, it may happen that the amount of the refund is actually correct and the Tax Agency has delayed payment. In this case, the Treasury will have to pay the taxpayer the interest corresponding to the time it took to make the refund.