Erik Lund, a 67-year-old Norwegian, has lived in Altea since 2020. In October 2026 a communication from the Agencia Tributaria, the Spanish tax agency, arrives in his official electronic mailbox. The text says that the authorities hold information about accounts and securities he owns abroad and reminds him of the obligation to file Modelo 720, the Spanish return on assets held abroad, and to declare the income in his IRPF (Spanish personal income tax) return. Erik has an account in Oslo with 60,000 € and a portfolio of Norwegian shares worth 95,000 €; he has never filed the 720, nor did he declare his Norwegian dividends for 2024 and 2025 in Spain. His first impulse is to reply that same afternoon with an email explaining everything. That is exactly what should not be done without first reading what kind of document he has in front of him.
Three documents that look alike and are not the same
The Agencia Tributaria uses very different documents that the taxpayer perceives in the same way: "Hacienda has written to me". Their legal effect, however, changes completely.
| Document | What it usually says | Practical effect |
|---|---|---|
| Information or warning letter | That it holds information and invites you to review your situation; it does not open a procedure or ask for documents within a deadline | Usually leaves room to put things right on your own initiative |
| Request for information | Asks you to provide specific documents or data within a deadline, as part of an action | It must be answered on time; it may or may not be a "prior request", depending on its purpose |
| Notice opening an enquiry procedure | Identifies the procedure (limited review, inspection), the tax and the tax year | From this point on, whatever you file is no longer treated as voluntary |
The guide on the types of communication from Hacienda explains how to recognise each one by its heading, its signature and its reference.
Why the boundary is the "prior request"
Article 27 of the Ley General Tributaria (the Spanish general tax act) reserves the surcharge, instead of a penalty, for those who file without a prior request, and defines a prior request as any administrative action carried out with the formal knowledge of the taxpayer and aimed at the recognition, correction, review, inspection, securing or assessment of the tax debt. Something similar happens with the 720: article 198 halves the penalty if the return is filed late without a prior request.
A letter that merely informs and invites a review does not usually fit that definition. A request within an enquiry into your income abroad does. Between those two extremes there are documents that call for careful reading, and that is where the cost is decided. We deal with it in detail in what counts as a prior request and in the question about a warning letter that is not a formal request.
The cost of each route, with Erik's figures
Let us assume that the undeclared Norwegian dividends give rise to additional IRPF of 2,400 € for 2024 (a figure made up for the example) and that the correction is made in November 2026.
Route A: Erik treats the letter as a warning and files on his own initiative:
- supplementary IRPF return for 2024: the filing period ended on 30 June 2025, more than 12 months late: a 15 % surcharge = 360 €, plus late-payment interest from month 13;
- 25 % reduction of the surcharge if paid on time: 270 €;
- each overdue 720, filed late without a prior request: the article 198 penalty halved, with a minimum of 150 € for each block affected (accounts and securities), that is, around 300 € per tax year for the years whose penalty is not time-barred.
Route B: Erik waits and the Agency opens an enquiry:
- tax of 2,400 € plus late-payment interest;
- penalty under article 191: if minor, 50 % = 1,200 €;
- with the reduction for agreement (30 %): 840 €; and with the reduction for prompt payment (40 % on the remaining amount): 504 €;
- penalty for each 720 without the halving: a minimum of 300 € per block, 600 € per tax year.
The difference is not huge for one tax year and a small amount of tax. Multiplied by several years, larger amounts or an offence classed as serious, it stops being small.
Replying in a hurry, by email or through a form, with an incomplete explanation can fix a version of the facts that is then hard to correct. First identify the document and its deadline; then reconstruct the figures; and only then decide what is filed and in what order. We do not guarantee that Hacienda will accept a particular characterisation of the document, but doing things in this order is what protects you most.
If you have received a letter of this kind, you can attach the document in the Modelo 720 form together with a summary of what you hold abroad; the first thing we do is classify it and work out the real deadline.
The order of the steps
- Read the whole document: who signs it, which procedure it mentions (if any), which tax years and which taxes, what deadline it gives and from when it runs. For electronic notifications, the deadline starts from when you access it or from when it is deemed rejected.
- Reconstruct: statements for all accounts and portfolios, dividend and interest certificates with their withholding, values at the end of each year.
- Decide the scope: which 720 returns are missing, which income is missing from which IRPF return, and whether the Impuesto sobre el Patrimonio (Spanish wealth tax) is affected.
- File before replying, if the document allows it: the overdue 720 and the supplementary returns, each for its own tax year.
- Answer what is asked, fully and strictly in line with what is required. What to answer and what not is explained in the guide what to answer and what not.
One letter, several tax years
The communication Erik received mentions his assets abroad in general terms, but his outstanding obligations are not a single one. He has been resident in Spain since 2020, so the 720 was due in every year in which any of his blocks exceeded the threshold, starting with the first; and the undeclared dividends affect every IRPF return for a year in which he received them. Before filing anything, it is worth drawing up a map by tax year: which 720 returns are missing, which income is missing from each income tax return and which years are still open to the tax authorities. The general four-year period, counted from the end of the voluntary filing period for each return, sets that limit; it is explained in the guide on the four-year limitation period, and the order in which it is best to file is in the guide on correcting several tax years.
What ignoring the letter does not achieve
An information letter does not oblige you to reply, but ignoring it is a bad idea. If the information behind it is correct, the next communication may already be the start of a procedure. And by then the room offered by route A will have gone.
On the dividends, a further warning: Norway will have withheld tax on them. What can be recovered there is for Erik's adviser in Norway to confirm; in Spain, the tax withheld may give rise to a credit for double taxation within the limits of the treaty, and that reduces the tax being corrected.
Many of the cases that reach Salama Tax begin with a letter like Erik's; on that page we explain how we organise the reply and bring the outstanding years up to date.