Deferring debts with Hacienda and Social Security

Deferring means delaying the payment of the debt to a later date. Splitting means dividing it into several instalments. Both can be combined, and they are regulated by article 65 of the Ley General Tributaria (the Spanish General Tax Act) for Hacienda and article 23 of the Ley General de la Seguridad Social (the Spanish General Social Security Act) for the Treasury.

Any person liable for payment (an individual, an autónomo (freelancer or self-employed worker) or a company) can request it when their economic and financial situation temporarily prevents them from paying on time. It is not a cancellation or forgiveness of the debt: the deferred amount is eventually paid, along with its interest.

It can be requested both in the voluntary period (before the payment is due) and in the executive period (once it has expired). The sooner you request it, the lower the surcharges and the lower the risk of embargo, so it is advisable not to wait until the debt enters the enforcement phase.

Deferment and splitting before the AEAT are regulated in article 65 of the Ley General Tributaria and in articles 44 to 54 of the Reglamento General de Recaudación (the Spanish General Collection Regulation, Real Decreto 939/2005). The application is submitted at the electronic headquarters of the Tax Agency.

Up to €50,000 (adding all debts together), no guarantee or endorsement is required based on the amount, according to Orden HFP/311/2023, in force since 15 April 2023. These deferments are usually processed almost automatically. Above that amount, you must provide a guarantee (usually a joint guarantee), or request the waiver, which requires not having enough assets to secure the debt and that seizing them would seriously harm the business and employment, or the Tax Agency itself.

Not all debts can be deferred: withholdings and payments on account, VAT and other passed-on taxes (unless you show that they were not actually collected), Corporate Income Tax instalment payments and, in insolvency proceedings, claims against the estate cannot be deferred; such applications are rejected without examination. The deferred debt accrues late payment interest until it is paid, and the number of instalments depends on the amount and the type of debtor. You can see the updated amount and conditions on the procedure page in Managora.

Hacienda has 6 months to resolve the request. If they do not reply within that period, the application is understood to be dismissed by administrative silence. Managora studies your case, calculates a viable payment plan and submits the application for you.

The deferment of quotas before the General Treasury of the Seguridad Social is regulated in article 23 of the Ley General de la Seguridad Social and in articles 31 to 36 of the Reglamento General de Recaudación de la Seguridad Social (the Spanish General Social Security Collection Regulation, Real Decreto 1415/2004). It includes the principal of the debt and, where applicable, surcharges, interest and costs.

There is an important limit: the quotas corresponding to the workers' contribution and those for work accidents and occupational diseases cannot be deferred. That part must be paid (within a maximum of one month from notification of the grant), or the deferment will not take effect.

Below a certain threshold, the Treasury does not require a guarantee; above it, an endorsement or other sufficient guarantee must be provided. The deferred amount accrues the late payment interest in force at any given time during the duration of the deferment. You can check the up-to-date threshold and conditions on the procedure page in Managora, which prepares and submits the application to the TGSS on your behalf.

If you paid Hacienda more than you owed, you can claim a refund. It applies, among other cases, when there was a duplicate payment, when the amount paid was higher than what resulted from the administrative act or the self-assessment, or when debts that were already time-barred were paid. This is regulated by articles 32 and 221 of the Ley General Tributaria (the Spanish General Tax Act) and the Reglamento de revisión en vía administrativa (the Spanish Regulation on Administrative Review, Real Decreto 520/2005).

When the excess comes from a self-assessment that you submitted, it is corrected by rectifying it (articles 120.3 and 221.4 of the Ley General Tributaria). For IRPF (personal income tax), IVA (VAT) and Impuesto sobre Sociedades (corporate income tax), this is done with an autoliquidación rectificativa (corrective self-assessment) on the same form; in those taxes a request for rectification is only used when the sole ground is that the rule applied breaches a higher-ranking one (a law, the Constitution, European Union law or an international treaty). For other taxes, you file a request for rectification.

If what was wrong was the assessment, the bill or the penalty itself, the route is to appeal it within one month of its notification or, for periodic bills, of the end of the payment period. If it was not appealed and has become final, what you paid can only be recovered through the special review procedures or the recurso extraordinario de revisión (extraordinary review appeal) under article 221.3 of the Ley General Tributaria, which apply in few cases.

The right to request a refund expires after 4 years, counted from the day after the payment or, if you paid within the self-assessment deadline, from the day after that deadline ended; if the refund stems from a judgment or decision that cancelled the act, from the day after it became final (articles 66 and 67 of the Ley General Tributaria). Any step you take in writing to ask for the refund, and any claim or appeal, interrupts the period, which then starts again (article 68). The refunded amount includes late payment interest from the date of the undue payment until payment is ordered (article 32.2).

The Administration has 6 months to resolve and, if it does not reply in that time, the application may be treated as refused. Managora reviews what was paid, prepares the application with the documentation that proves the right and submits it for you. You do not need to ask for the interest, because it is paid automatically; we check that the decision calculates it correctly.

We study your situation and decide the best option: deferring, splitting or claiming what was overpaid, with a realistic payment schedule and the number of instalments that the Administration usually accepts.

We prepare the application, and when necessary the guarantee or the exemption request, and we submit it electronically to the AEAT or the TGSS on your behalf. You do not have to access the electronic headquarters or wait in queues.

You can start any of the 3 procedures from their page in Managora: deferment or splitting with Hacienda, debt deferment with the Seguridad Social, or refund of undue payments. On each page you will see the exact amount of the service and what you need to provide.