A Spanish tax inspection has been opened against you
Last updated 2026-09-01 · Reviewed by Jaime Piñeira Pardo, registered with the ICAM bar, no. 138826
The short answer
The defence starts with the notice opening the inspection, not with the audit report. Article 150 LGT gives the inspection eighteen months, twenty seven in the cases it lists, and exceeding them means the actions do not interrupt the limitation period. Against a disagreement report there are fifteen days to argue before the assessing body, and the later assessment can be challenged.
You receive a notice opening inspection proceedings covering three years of corporate income tax and two of VAT. You are summoned to the tax office with the accounts, the contracts and the receipts for a series of expenses. After a few visits the inspector is already quoting figures: an adjustment of 180,000 euros and, behind it, penalties. You are encouraged to sign in agreement and finish sooner. You do not know whether to sign, what signing means, or what happens if you refuse.
The case, in five lines
- What is brought
- Defence within the inspection file itself and submissions against the disagreement report, followed by a challenge to the assessment that is issued.
- Before which court
- The inspection unit while the actions run and the assessing body at the end. Afterwards, the TEAR (the regional tax tribunal) and the contencioso-administrativo courts.
- Deadline
- Fifteen days from the disagreement report to make submissions, under articles 157.3 LGT and 188.1 RGAT. The inspection has eighteen months from the notice of commencement, twenty seven in the cases of article 150.1.b) LGT.
- Who can bring it
- The taxpayer under inspection, whether an individual or a company, and any representative duly accredited in the file.
- Financial risk
- Agreement once signed cannot be withdrawn, under article 187.4 RGAT, and producing requested documents late extends the maximum period by three or six months under article 150.5 LGT. The assessment accrues interest and usually comes with a penalty.
The opening notice already sets the ground: scope, periods and time limit
Article 178 RGAT requires the extent and scope of the actions to be stated at the outset, and to be determined for each obligation and period. Where the scope is partial, the elements to be checked or excluded must be notified. Article 150.2 LGT adds that the same notice must state the time limit applicable to the case. All of that is read closely on day one.
Scope is not a formality: it delimits what may be reviewed and what may not, and it conditions the provisional or definitive nature of the assessment that article 176.1.d) RGAT requires to be stated in the report. Article 178.5 RGAT allows the authority to alter the extent or the scope during the actions, with reasons, and those reasons are scrutinised too.
Where the review is partial there is also a strategic decision: article 179 RGAT governs how the request referred to in article 149 LGT is made, addressed to the assessing body or stated to the inspector so that it is recorded. A refusal to admit it must be reasoned and cannot itself be appealed, although the acts closing the inspection can be.
The report is not challenged: the assessment behind it is
Article 185.4 RGAT is categorical: inspection reports cannot be the object of an appeal or an economic-administrative claim, without prejudice to those available against the resulting assessments. Anyone who tries to challenge the report loses time and sometimes the deadline. What is done against the report is to argue, and those arguments are the material for the later challenge to the assessment.
Article 157.5 LGT closes the circle: once the submissions are received, the competent body issues the appropriate assessment and notifies it. That assessment is the challengeable act, first by reposición appeal or before the TEAR within the month of article 235.1 LGT, and afterwards before the contencioso-administrativo courts within the two months of article 46.1 LJCA.
Signing in agreement is a decision that cannot be undone
Article 187.4 RGAT states that the taxpayer may not withdraw the agreement expressed in the report, without prejudice to the right to challenge the resulting assessment and to make submissions where the rectification of paragraph 3.b) applies. Agreement reduces the penalty, but it fixes the accepted facts and leaves the case with much less room afterwards.
Article 187.3 RGAT also gives the assessing body one month from the day after the date of the report to notify one of the decisions of article 156.3 LGT, and warns that, if none is notified, the assessment is deemed issued and notified on the following day in the terms proposed in the report. Silence, here, works against whoever signed.
The alternative is not merely to sign or to refuse. Article 187.2 RGAT provides for partial agreement, with two related reports, so that what is beyond argument is accepted and the rest is fought. Properly handled, that route preserves the reduction on the accepted part without giving up the fight on the core of the adjustment.
Eighteen months, and overrunning has consequences for limitation
Article 150.1 LGT sets eighteen months as a general rule and twenty seven where one of the listed circumstances applies, such as an annual turnover requiring the accounts to be audited, or the taxpayer belonging to a tax consolidated group under inspection. Time runs from notification of the commencement until the resulting act is notified.
Article 150.6 LGT states what happens if that limit is exceeded: there is no lapse and the actions continue, but the limitation period is not treated as interrupted by the actions taken, payments made up to the first subsequent action become voluntary for the purposes of article 27 LGT, and no late payment interest is charged from the breach until the end. On old debts, that can empty the adjustment.
That is why the count is watched from day one and checked against what article 176.1.b) RGAT requires the report to state: the starting date, the applicable time limit and the circumstances affecting its calculation under paragraphs 3, 4 and 5 of article 150 LGT. Every suspension and extension noted there must be justified, and many are not.
The fifteen days against the disagreement report decide the case
Article 188.1 RGAT explains when a disagreement report is drawn up: where the taxpayer refuses to sign it, signs without agreeing, or fails to appear on the date set. It must state the right to make submissions within fifteen days, counted from the refusal, the signature or the notification of the report. Article 157.3 LGT says the same and names the addressee: the assessing body.
Article 188.2 RGAT requires the report to set out, in the necessary detail, the facts and legal grounds of the proposal, and allows it to be completed by a supplementary report handed over with it. That report is the map of the case: it shows what evidence has been weighed and what has been ignored, and from reading it come the grounds that will later support the challenge to the assessment.
Article 188.3 RGAT then provides that the competent body issues the appropriate act in the light of the report, the supplementary report and the submissions. If it corrects the proposal for an error of fact or a wrong application of the rules affecting matters not argued, it must notify the correcting decision and open a further fifteen days. Article 188.4 RGAT also allows it to order the file to be completed.
During the inspection you have time limits and rights that can be enforced
Article 180.3 RGAT requires a minimum of ten days to appear where the request is not made in the taxpayer's presence, and paragraph 4 requires the actions to disturb the business as little as possible. Article 182 RGAT makes acting outside working hours at the taxpayer's premises conditional on consent or on a prior authorisation, of which the taxpayer may demand a copy.
Article 150.4 LGT allows you to request, before the prior hearing is opened, one or more periods in which the inspection will take no action, up to a combined maximum of sixty calendar days that extend the overall time limit. Article 184 RGAT sets the detail: a minimum of seven calendar days each, requested at least seven calendar days in advance, and automatically granted where the requirements are met.
If interim measures are adopted, article 181 RGAT requires them to be recorded with an inventory and reasons, and gives five non extendable days to make submissions to the assessing body, which must confirm, amend or lift the measure within fifteen days. That decision cannot be appealed on its own, but its merits are argued later against the act closing the inspection.
How we run the case, step by step
- 1
Analysing the opening notice
We identify the obligations, periods and scope under article 178 RGAT, and the applicable time limit that article 150.2 LGT requires to be stated. With those three pieces we decide what is produced, in what order, and what falls outside the review.
- 2
Preparing the documents and controlling the requests
Each request is answered in time, using the ten day minimum of article 180.3 RGAT. Producing documents late after the third request extends the maximum period by three or six months under article 150.5 LGT, and that is avoided.
- 3
Written case at the hearing before the reports
Article 183 RGAT places that hearing before the agreement or disagreement report is drawn up. It is the moment to set out the taxpayer's version in writing, with the evidence supporting it, so that it is on record before the proposal is written.
- 4
Deciding between agreement, settlement or disagreement
We weigh the partial agreement of article 187.2 RGAT and the settlement report of article 186 RGAT, which requires a deposit or guarantee beforehand. Signing without more is ruled out, because article 187.4 RGAT prevents any later withdrawal of the agreement given.
- 5
Submissions within fifteen days to the assessing body
With the report and the supplementary report of article 188.2 RGAT, the submissions of article 157.3 LGT are drafted, disputing facts, legal classification and the running of the time limit. That is where expert or documentary evidence missing from the file is added.
- 6
Challenging the assessment and, where applicable, the penalty
Once the assessment of article 157.5 LGT is notified, it is challenged within the month of article 235.1 LGT and, if needed, within the two months of article 46.1 LJCA. The penalty is fought separately, because its suspension and reductions follow their own rules.
The evidence that decides the case
- The opening notice, with the scope and time limit stated in it, and every record signed during the inspection.
- The supplementary report attached to the audit report, which reveals what evidence was weighed and what was left out.
- The mandatory books and records, whose state must be recorded in the report under article 176.2 RGAT.
- The contracts, invoices and payment records for the disputed expenses, matched against the income of the same year.
- The full calendar of notifications, to measure the time limit of article 150 LGT and any suspensions recorded.
- Where indirect estimation is applied, the reasoned report and the identification of the sample or sector studies used.
What closes the door
- Signing in agreement to finish sooner. Article 187.4 RGAT prevents withdrawal, and the accepted facts condition everything that follows.
- Trying to challenge the audit report. Article 185.4 RGAT rules that out: what can be challenged is the assessment resulting from it.
- Holding documents back until the end. Article 150.5 LGT extends the maximum period by three or six months where requested material is produced late, handing the inspection extra time.
- Letting the fifteen days of article 188.1 RGAT pass without submissions, and reaching the challenge with a file built solely by the authority.
- Not measuring the time limit of article 150 LGT: exceeding it annuls nothing by itself, but it means the actions do not interrupt the limitation period.
The law that applies
- Art. 150 LGT. Sets the inspection time limit at eighteen months, or twenty seven in the cases it lists, governs the grounds of suspension, the sixty days the taxpayer may request and the extensions for late production of documents, and provides that exceeding it does not end the inspection but prevents the limitation period from being treated as interrupted and interest from being charged thereafter. BOE-A-2003-23186
- Art. 157 LGT. Governs disagreement reports: a hearing before signature, express record of the disagreement, a possible inspector's report, fifteen days to make submissions to the assessing body, the possibility of further actions, and a final assessment notified to the taxpayer. BOE-A-2003-23186
- Art. 158 LGT. Requires reports using indirect estimation to be accompanied by a reasoned report on the causes, the state of the accounts, the methods chosen and the calculations, allows the use of the method to be disputed in challenges to the assessments, and details the admissible data sources and adjustment by sampling. BOE-A-2003-23186
- Art. 185 RGAT. Governs how reports are drawn up after the hearing, their handwritten or electronic signature, what happens if the taxpayer does not appear or refuses to sign, and provides that reports cannot be challenged in the administrative route, without prejudice to challenges against the resulting assessments. BOE-A-2007-15984
- Art. 187 RGAT. Governs agreement reports and partial agreement with two related reports, gives the competent body one month to notify one of the decisions of article 156.3 LGT, treats the assessment as issued in the terms of the report if nothing is notified, and prevents any withdrawal of the agreement already given. BOE-A-2007-15984
- Art. 188 RGAT. Determines when a disagreement report is drawn up and the right to make submissions within fifteen days, requires it to state the facts and legal grounds with a possible supplementary report, and governs the later decision, the further fifteen days where it is corrected on matters not argued, and any additional actions. BOE-A-2007-15984
Each article checked against the consolidated text published in the BOE (the Spanish official gazette).
Frequently asked questions
Is it in my interest to sign the report in agreement?
Only if the facts are beyond argument and the reduction in the penalty is worth it. Article 187.4 RGAT prevents withdrawal of the agreement, so the accepted facts are fixed. Where part of the adjustment is arguable, article 187.2 RGAT allows partial agreement with two related reports: what is beyond dispute is accepted and the rest is fought without giving anything up.
What happens if the inspection lasts more than eighteen months?
Article 150.6 LGT states that the inspection does not lapse and the actions continue, but with three consequences: the limitation period is not treated as interrupted by the actions taken within the time limit, payments made up to the first subsequent action count as voluntary for the purposes of article 27 LGT, and no late payment interest is charged from the breach until the end.
Can I ask the inspection to pause for a few days?
Yes. Article 150.4 LGT allows you to request, before the prior hearing is opened, one or more periods without actions not exceeding sixty calendar days in total, with the warning that they extend the maximum time limit. Article 184 RGAT requires each period to be at least seven calendar days and to be requested seven calendar days in advance.
Indirect estimation has been applied to me, can it be disputed?
Yes. Article 158.2 LGT states that the method requires no prior act declaring it, but that challenges against the resulting assessments may raise whether its use was appropriate. Article 158.1 LGT also requires a reasoned report on the causes, the state of the accounts, the methods chosen and the calculations, and that report can be attacked point by point.
Can I challenge the audit report directly?
No. Article 185.4 RGAT provides that inspection reports cannot be the object of an appeal or an economic-administrative claim, without prejudice to those available against the resulting assessments. Against the report there are fifteen days of submissions to the assessing body, and the challenge comes later, against the assessment once notified.
This guide explains how the action works in general. It does not replace the study of your own case: deadlines depend on when things happened and on what you have done since.