The impact of Spain’s tax system – on taxpayers and Spain’s economy overall- certainly results from the substantive rules governing the various taxes that comprise it, although it is also caused by their effective practical application, since during that application process there is always significant room for manoeuvre which weighs heavily on the final result of the tax burden.
That view, which is held by the Fundación de Impuestos y Competividad (the Foundation), is, like in other previous projects, the focus of the project concerning tax procedures sponsored by the Foundation. And clearly the emphasis on this aspect of taxation if fully consistent with the significance that the Foundation attaches to legal certainty, the attainment of which is essential to improving the tax system.
Reviewing the procedures and their application is a good way of measuring the legal “certainty” of the tax system or, if you prefer, of “the application” of the tax system. Legal certainty or the absence thereof, which, as far as the project under consideration is concerned, is determined by the use which the Tax Administration, as the enforcement arm of tax policy, makes of the tools that procedural regulations assigns to it.
The final findings of this work were published in June 2022 under the title “Current issues concerning tax application procedures and proposals for improvement.”