Elena has dual Argentine and Spanish nationality and has lived in Madrid since 2019. In Argentina she still has an account held jointly with her brother with about 80,000 euros, and in the United States she has a brokerage account with shares in her former company worth 65,000 euros. In 2024 her gestoría (the local firm that handles her tax paperwork) told her that she did not have to file Modelo 720, the return that reports assets held abroad: "your half of the account is 40,000 euros, and the shares don't reach the threshold". In September 2026, on changing adviser, she discovers that both statements were wrong.
The question she asks is twofold: who pays now, and how is it fixed? Both have an answer, but in the reverse order to the one people usually expect: first it is corrected before Hacienda (the Spanish tax authority), and then accounts are settled with the professional.
Before Hacienda, the person obliged is you
The obligation to file the 720 belongs personally to the taxpayer. The fact that a professional advised you badly does not transfer that obligation, nor does it make the Agencia Tributaria direct the penalty at him. Hacienda only knows Elena.
What can play a part is fault. Article 179 of the Ley General Tributaria (the General Tax Act) excludes liability where the necessary diligence was exercised, and having relied on a professional is sometimes argued in that sense. It is an argument worth knowing, not one to count on: the courts usually require more than having delegated. It is no substitute for correcting as soon as possible.
The gestoría's two mistakes, one by one
The threshold for the joint account
The 50,000 euro threshold for the accounts block is measured against the total balance of the account, not against each holder's percentage. With 80,000 euros in the Argentine account, Elena and her brother would both be obliged if both were resident in Spain; Elena is, and she reports her 50% as her ownership percentage. It is the most frequent mistake in the 720.
The shares in the United States
Elena's shares, 65,000 euros, make up the securities block by themselves and exceed the threshold. The gestoría probably took them for shares in a Spanish company, or did not ask where they were held. The test is the place of deposit or of the issuing entity: a US broker places them abroad. We develop this in equity and Modelo 720.
How it is corrected, with dates
- Check which years are missing. Elena has been resident since 2019, but her assets did not always exceed the threshold. The balances at 31 December of each open tax year have to be reconstructed. Returns whose deadline ended more than four years ago no longer generate a penalty.
- File the missing 720s, one per tax year. If there has been no request from the tax authority, the article 198 penalty is halved.
- Review the income tax return. If the shares paid dividends or some were sold, that should be in Modelo 100. If it is not, supplementary returns go in with the recargo, the surcharge for filing late on your own initiative.
- Keep the paper trail: what was filed, when and why, for whatever comes next with the gestoría.
If the mistake had been a different one (a 720 filed but with wrong data), the route would be to file a supplementary or replacement return for the same tax year, which the form itself allows. And if the tax authority has already detected the inaccurate data, article 199 provides its own penalty for incomplete or inaccurate information returns, calculated differently depending on whether or not the item is an amount.
If you are in that situation, the Modelo 720 form asks you for just enough to see which years have to be filed and what needs correcting in the income tax return.
Which part of the cost can be claimed from the adviser
Here is the nuance that avoids a lot of pointless argument. The professional is liable for what his mistake has cost you, not for the tax you had to pay anyway. In Elena's case, with two open tax years affected:
| Item | Approximate amount | Claimable? |
|---|---|---|
| 2024 720 penalty, halved | 150 euros | Yes, it is a consequence of the mistake |
| 2025 720 penalty, halved | 150 euros | Yes |
| IRPF on undeclared dividends | ≈ 380 euros per year | No: it was owed anyway |
| Article 27 recargo on that tax | Depending on the delay | Yes, if the income tax mistake was also his |
| Fees of whoever corrects it | As quoted | Yes, as consequential loss |
Paying the penalties with the 40% reduction for prompt payment, the direct loss from the 720 comes to 180 euros. The claimable figure is usually small in the 720 and large when the mistake drags in the income tax return or a review. That is precisely why it is worth measuring before deciding how much effort to put into claiming.
If you told your adviser that you had the account and the shares and he answered that there was no need to report them, the mistake is his. If you did not tell him, it is yours, however much he ought to have asked. Before claiming anything, find the emails, the messages and the onboarding questionnaire in which those assets appear. Without that proof, the claim is much weaker.
How the claim is documented
The relationship with a gestoría is a contract for services, and the route to claim is civil. The orderly way is this:
- Gather the engagement letter or, failing that, the invoices showing that he handled that tax and those years for you.
- Gather the communication in which you told him about the assets, and his reply.
- Quantify the loss with documents: the penalty decision, the payment receipt and the invoice for the correction.
- Send him a formal demand by a means that leaves proof of delivery, asking him to notify his professional liability insurer.
Personal actions become time-barred after five years under article 1964 of the Código Civil (the Spanish Civil Code), so there is room, but everyone's memory fades before the deadline does. What there is not is any guarantee that the professional or his insurer will accept: it depends on the proof and, sometimes, on a lawsuit that for amounts of this size is rarely worth it.
Before signing with the next adviser
Elena's case shows what to ask next time. An adviser who handles your 720 should ask you, every January, for the list of all the accounts, deposits, securities, insurance policies and properties you have abroad, with their institution and country, and also those on which you are an authorised signatory. He should keep a copy of what was reported each year in order to apply the 20,000 euro rule. And he should connect the 720 with the income tax return, asking about dividends, interest and sales of those same assets.
If at the first meeting nobody asks you where your shares are held, that is a sign. There is no need to distrust everyone; it is enough to put in writing the information you hand over and to ask for the answer in writing too. That is what, if it comes to it, makes it possible to know whose mistake it was.
Finally, changing adviser does not erase your tax history. The next one has to know what was filed wrongly so as not to repeat it, and later 720s are compared with what was last reported. How each record is filled in without falling back into the joint account mistake is explained in how Modelo 720 is filled in.
Common doubts when an adviser has got Modelo 720 wrong
If the mistake was my adviser's, am I still liable?
Before Hacienda, yes: in Modelo 720 the taxpayer is you, and the debt is claimed from you. What you can do is argue that there was no fault, which is what can bring down the penalty, not the debt, and, on a completely different level, claim against the professional or his insurer. They are two separate things and they follow separate routes.
Do I have to file it every year?
No. Once filed, you only report again if a block rises by more than 20,000 euros compared with the last return, or if something is closed or transferred. But it has to be checked every year.