Nuria Beltrán is the sole director of a catering company in Granada, with eleven employees. In July 2026 she applied to pay 26,000 € of the previous year's corporate income tax in instalments, without a guarantee, and was granted twelve months. In October she wants to bid in a town council tender for the canteens of two schools and, at the same time, apply for a regional grant to refurbish the kitchen. Both sets of tender conditions ask for a certificate of being up to date with Hacienda, as the Spanish tax office is commonly called. An acquaintance has told her that "with a deferral without a bank guarantee the certificate comes out negative", and she is thinking of taking out a loan to pay it off.
Before signing that loan, it is worth reading the article that governs the certificate.
What the Regulations say, word for word
The certificate of being up to date with tax obligations is governed by article 74 of the General Regulations on tax management and inspection, approved by Royal Decree 1065/2007. Its section 1 lists the circumstances that must be met for it to be positive. As regards debts, letter g) requires having no debts or penalties "in the enforcement period" with the authority issuing the certificate, and adds an exception: where the debts are "deferred, paid in instalments or their enforcement has been suspended".
Two ideas follow from that text:
- Only debts in the enforcement period block the certificate. A debt in the voluntary period, however large, does not prevent it.
- Even debts in the enforcement period stop blocking it if they are deferred or being paid in instalments. The rule does not distinguish between deferrals with a guarantee and without one.
For grants, article 18.1.e) of the Regulations of the General Grants Law, approved by Royal Decree 887/2006, repeats the same exception in almost the same words.
The belief about the guarantee, and where it comes from
The idea that a deferral without a bank guarantee "does not count" is not supported by the wording of article 74. It most probably comes from confusing situations that really are different:
| Situation of the debt | Positive certificate? | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Deferral applied for in the voluntary period, being processed | Yes, as regards that debt | The application prevents the enforcement period from starting (article 161.2 of the Ley General Tributaria, the General Tax Law) |
| Deferral granted and up to date, with or without a guarantee | Yes | Letter g): debt deferred or paid in instalments |
| Deferral applied for in the enforcement period, not yet granted | No | The debt is in the enforcement period and is not yet deferred |
| Instalment plan defaulted on and fallen due | No | It is back in the enforcement period without being deferred |
| Application declared inadmissible | No | It is treated as not filed and the debt enters the enforcement period |
The guarantee does matter in other aspects of deferral. It decides whether or not the application enters the no-guarantee circuit of up to 50,000 €, which we explain in how much can be deferred without a guarantee, and it reduces the interest to the statutory rate when it covers the whole debt. But it does not change the outcome of the certificate.
The other conditions that sink the certificate
Nuria's case carries a bigger risk than the deferral, and it lies in the other letters of article 74.1. The certificate is also negative if any of these returns is missing:
- The corporate income tax, IRPF (personal income tax) or IRNR (non-resident income tax) returns that apply.
- Those for withholdings and payments on account, with their annual summaries.
- VAT returns, with their annual summary and, where relevant, the declarations of intra-Community transactions.
- General information returns.
Under section 3, the returns checked are those whose deadline fell within the twelve months before the two months immediately preceding the date of the certificate. A forgotten Modelo 390 or an unfiled 111 weighs more than any instalment plan that is up to date.
An instalment plan that stops being paid goes back into the enforcement period, and with it the certificate turns negative. If you are going to submit a bid, an unpaid instalment in the week you ask for the certificate can leave you out. In addition, article 52.2 of the Reglamento General de Recaudación (the General Collection Regulations) allows the deferral to be kept in force on condition that you stay up to date while it lasts: a return that has not been filed can affect the instalment plan.
Nuria's timetable
With all this, what Nuria needs is not to cancel her instalment plan but to check three things before asking for the certificate:
- That the instalment plan is up to date. The instalment of 20 September paid and the account being charged holding funds for the one on 20 October.
- That there are no other debts in the enforcement period. A small penalty, an old assessment or a difference on a quarterly return may be in the enforcement period without her knowing. The Agency's website lets you look up every outstanding debt.
- That all the returns in the window of article 74.3 have been filed, that is, those that fell due between fourteen and two months before the date of the certificate. This is the most common mistake.
If all three checks come out well, the certificate should be positive and the 26,000 € loan would be unnecessary. If the tender requires the certificate on a particular date, it is worth asking for it with time to spare: article 22.2 of the Grants Regulations sets a maximum period of 20 days for issuing it and provides for what to do if it does not arrive in time.
If you have a tender or a grant in view and would like us to review your position with the Agency beforehand, you can send us the details through the deferral form. We cannot guarantee what the certificate will say, which depends on what the Agency has on record on the day it is issued, but we can spot what might turn it negative.
Three administrations, three certificates
The certificate from the Agencia Tributaria, the Spanish tax agency, only proves your position with the State tax authorities. Article 74.4 says so expressly: each administration certifies in respect of the obligations it is responsible for enforcing. That is why:
- If the grant is given by an autonomous community (one of Spain's regional governments), article 18.1.f) of the Grants Regulations also requires having no debts with that community, on the terms it sets.
- If it is a town council, it may ask for its own certificate for local taxes.
- Social Security issues a separate certificate, with its own rules on deferrals.
A deferral with the Agency says nothing about your position with the regional government, the town council or the Social Security General Treasury. And vice versa.
When the deferral is applied for in order to obtain the certificate
There are cases where the order is the other way round: a debt in the enforcement period blocks the certificate and the deferral is applied for precisely to unblock it. It works, but only once it is granted. While the application is being processed, the debt remains in the enforcement period and the certificate remains negative.
If the tender deadline is short, it is worth working out whether there is time for a decision. Applications in the automated circuit are usually decided quickly; the rest can take up to six months, which is the maximum period in article 52.6 of the Collection Regulations. In that case it may be more useful to pay the debt in the enforcement period and defer another one that is still in the voluntary period. We deal with this in if the enforcement order has already arrived.
Debts the law does not allow to be deferred, such as withholdings or VAT collected, cannot be used for this strategy: they are in which debts can never be deferred.
When a tender or a grant is at stake, at Salama Tax we review the returns in the certificate's window and the outstanding debts before it is requested.