The first thing to do with an envelope from the Agencia Tributaria, the Spanish tax office, is not to answer it: it is to identify it. The phrase "a letter from Hacienda" covers things as different as a notice that obliges you to nothing and the opening of a procedure that can end in an assessment and a penalty. That identification decides which time limit is running, what you can provide, what is closed off when it ends and whether a cheap way out still exists. This guide teaches you to read the heading.
The full map
| What it is | Does it open a procedure? | What it can end up doing | What it closes when it ends |
|---|---|---|---|
| Warning letter or informative communication | No | Nothing in itself: it points you to a discrepancy | Nothing |
| Request for information (requerimiento de información) | Yes | Obtain data, about you or about third parties | Nothing: the file may continue or another may be opened |
| Data check (Verificación de datos) | Yes | Assess on the basis of formal or arithmetical discrepancies | Little: it does not prevent a later review of the same matter |
| Limited review (Comprobación limitada) | Yes | Assess after examining documents | That matter and that period, unless new facts come to light |
| Opening of a tax audit | Yes | Adjust your tax with the widest scope | Depending on whether the audit's scope is general or partial |
| Providencia de apremio, the order for enforced collection | It is collection, not review | Collect a debt already overdue | — |
| Opening of a penalty file | Yes, and a separate one | Impose a fine | — |
The warning letter, which is the only cheap opportunity
Informative communications impose nothing and open no procedure. They usually say that the figures you declared do not match those held by the Administration and invite you to review your position. Many people put them away thinking "the serious one will come later". It is precisely the other way round: as long as there is only a warning and not a formal request, you can still put things right spontaneously, with the article 27 late-filing surcharge instead of a penalty.
The line between a warning and a formal request is not always obvious from the tone of the letter, and its consequences are enormous. There is a whole guide devoted to it: what counts as a prior request. When the doubt is reasonable, it is settled by reading the foot of the document (which article it relies on, which office issues it and whether it grants a time limit) and not the first line.
The request for information
It asks for data or documents, relying on the general duty to inform and cooperate with the tax office. It opens a procedure and grants a time limit, usually ten working days. Its defining feature is that it closes nothing: you provide what is asked, the file is archived or continues, and the Administration keeps its ability to review you later fully intact.
There are two variants worth telling apart. One is the request addressed to the taxpayer about their own obligations. The other is the request for information about third parties, sent to banks, platforms or a business about its customers or suppliers. In the second case the recipient is not being reviewed, even though the letter imposes exactly the same duty to answer.
Data check and limited review: they look alike and they are not
Both are tax management procedures, both can end in an assessment and both grant a period to submit arguments. The difference lies in the scope of what they can do and, above all, in what they leave closed when they end.
| Data check | Limited review | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is for | Formal defects, arithmetical errors, discrepancies with the figures declared or held by the Administration, a plainly wrong application of the rules | Reviewing the facts, acts or elements of the tax obligation by examining documents |
| What it can ask for | Very little: it is a cross-checking procedure | Registers and invoices, with the statutory company accounts as the limit |
| Effect when it ends | It does not prevent a later review of the same matter | The Administration cannot return to the same matter and period unless it discovers new facts in separate proceedings |
The closing effect of a limited review is an asset. A file that ends with an express decision leaves that item and that period shielded against a later review, unless new facts appear. That is why it is not always in your interest to hunt for a formal defect that would annul the proceedings: it can send back to square one a matter that was already closed.
The tax audit
The notice opening an audit is recognisable at a glance: it names the inspector in charge, sets the scope (general or partial) and summons you for a specific day or requires documents within a time limit of its own. It is not just another letter with a longer deadline; it is a different procedure, with different powers and different risks.
Nothing is improvised here and nothing is answered out of habit. The first step is to read the scope precisely, because it defines the perimeter of everything that follows, and the second is to provide nothing before reviewing what lies within that perimeter.
How to read the heading in thirty seconds
- The title of the document. "Comunicación" (communication), "requerimiento" (formal request), "propuesta de Liquidación" (proposed assessment), "trámite de audiencia" (hearing stage), "acuerdo de inicio de expediente sancionador" (decision to open a penalty file), "providencia de apremio" (order for enforced collection). Each word names a different thing and none of them is interchangeable.
- The issuing office. Gestión Tributaria (tax management), Inspección (audit) or Recaudación (collection). It changes the whole scenario.
- The articles cited at the foot. They are the most reliable label: they tell you which procedure it is without having to interpret the tone.
- The time limit and how it is counted. Working days almost always, counted from notification, which is not the same as from the day you open your mailbox. We explain this in how the time limits are really counted.
- The file number. It lets you check in the tax office's electronic portal whether there are other steps in the same matter that have not reached you on paper.
The clock that runs in your favour: expiry
Tax management procedures have a maximum duration of six months, counted from notice of the opening to notice of the decision. If that is exceeded, the procedure expires (caducidad), and expiry has an effect worth understanding properly: steps taken in an expired procedure do not interrupt the limitation period.
This does not mean the debt disappears. The Administration can open a new procedure on the same matter if its right to assess is not yet time-barred. But in a matter concerning an old year, the combination of expiry and limitation can settle it entirely, which is why keeping count of the six months is part of the work from day one and not something looked at at the end.
The penalty is not one of these letters: it is a different one
If, as well as reviewing, they decide to impose a penalty, a separate penalty file is opened, with its own notice, its own time limit and its own appeal. It arrives later, sometimes weeks after the assessment, and anyone who had considered the matter closed gets a surprise. How it works and the reductions available are in the penalty is handled separately.
What to do the day it arrives
- Note two dates: the date of notification and the date the time limit expires, properly calculated.
- Identify the type using the five points in the previous section.
- Look through the rest of your electronic mailbox: it is common for there to be more than one communication in the same file, and for only the latest to have been seen.
- Do not provide anything yet. What you provide and what you do not is a decision, not a reflex: what to provide, and above all what not to.
- Check whether the year is still open, before rebuilding papers from five years ago.
If you would rather we identified it, send us the whole document through the tax office letter form: with the heading, the date and the file number we can say what it is and which time limit is running, which is the only urgent thing on the first day. How we handle it after that is on answering the tax office.
This classification describes the procedures as the Ley General Tributaria, the General Tax Act, regulates them, but classifying a particular document means reading all of it. We are tax lawyers and we work with the file in front of us; no guide replaces that reading, and no outcome can be promised in advance.
What is never a letter from the tax office
There is a kind of message that imitates these communications, and it is worth recognising. Fraud attempts impersonating the Agencia Tributaria are constant and always follow the same pattern: an email or a text message with a link, an invented urgency and, almost always, the announcement of a refund in your favour.
- The Agencia Tributaria does not serve notices by email or text message. Alerts from the portal are just that, courtesy alerts, and they never contain the document or ask for information.
- Bank details are never requested that way, and no refund depends on filling in a form linked from a message.
- The check is always the same: go into the electronic portal by typing its address into your browser yourself, and look at the mailbox. If there is something, it is there; if it is not there, it does not exist.
Frequently asked questions about your tax office letter
How do I know whether what I have opens a procedure or not?
From the articles cited at the foot and from whether it grants a time limit. An informative communication gives you no period to answer; a formal request or an opening notice does, and says so expressly.
I have received a warning letter. Can I ignore it?
You can, but it is the worst option. While there is only a warning, the route of putting things right spontaneously, with a surcharge instead of a penalty, remains open. That window closes when a formal request arrives.
Can a limited review turn into a tax audit?
The procedure can be extended, or give way to audit proceedings, if something appears that goes beyond its powers. That is one of the reasons to provide what is asked for and nothing more.
What happens if the procedure lasts more than six months?
It expires, and the steps taken in the expired procedure do not interrupt the limitation period. The Administration can open another if its right to assess is still alive, but for old years that combination can settle the matter.