The Campaign of Renta 2015 has just started and many taxpayers are already on the task of checking the draft that the Tax Office offers to make the statement easier. Neverthless, it is important to review it for at least an hour before validating it, because according to the estimations of the Tax Ministry techincians (GESTHA), one of every three may contain mistakes, omissions and inaccuracies that will stop you from benefiting of the fiscal reductions available.

 

The 75% of the tax statements that are presented result in a refund, and the need of getting it fast means that sometimes the drafts offered by the Tax Agency (AEAT) are not revised nor rectified. The AEAT itself openly admits that, in many cases, it does not have all the information needed to include many reductions in the tax statement.

Precisely, those mistakes and omissions damage specially the taxpayers with less income, who, generally, can’t afford the fiscal advisors’ services to help them complement their drafts properly. Furthermore, the AEAT holds up in five weeks the start of the personalized attention, known as scheduled appointment, too much waiting time for many of this taxpayers who need to get paid the refund immediately.

With the purpose of helping the taxpayers in this situation, the Tax Agency Technicians have made a list with the ten mistakes, omissions or inaccuracies that are most frequent in the draft of the tax statement. Most of them are related to the reductions for acquisition of a home, the civil status of the public subsidies.

1. The family plus one

You must pay special attention to wether the changes in the civil status appear in the draft, just as the deceases and, above everything, the births, because they come with the posibility of losing family reductions. Likewise, the disabilities must be kept in mind.

In the case of births, it may have happened that during 2015 your family has increased, and this may increase the amount to be refunded in between 1,200 and 2,400 aditional euros if you reach the qualification of general large family or special large family or if, on the other hand, you acquire the statement of disability. Neverthless, those who have already earned the anticipated payment during 2015 will not be able to get this reduction. Besides this new reductions, it is convenientto check that the maternity reduction is properly allocated.

Regaerding the minimums for descendants, a very common mistake is to include in the draft a child that has had small jobs that have produced him/her earnings over 1,800 euros if he/she is presenting the income statemet. The technicians recommend that the children in this situation don’t present the statement of they are not obligued to do so, because this may cause the refund to be smaller than the benefit of including it.

Finally, you must not forget to include in the draft the reductions that all the Autonomous Communities have for this and other family circumstances.

2. Alone or accompanied?

When it comes to doing the income statement you must always choose to pay your taxes in the way that most benefits your economy, even if the AEAT has already checked any other box. That is, if you are married you must analyze if it it is fiscally better to do the statement individually or together. Additionally, in the cases of separation or divorce the compensatory pensions  between spouses must be reflected, and the annual payments for children alimentation as long as there is no right to get minimums for descendants, because both increase the amount to be refunded.

3. Dedicate time to autonomic reductions

Even though time is money, when it comes to doing your income statement you mustn’t check the clock too much; it is necessary to be informed about the different autonomic reductions available where you live. In most cases they are unknown by the taxpayers and they may give you great fiscal benefits that you will lose if you validate the draft in a hurry. They usually have to do with the expenses related to studying or learning, certain donations, self-employment, etc.

4. The end of the reduction for rent doesn’t necesarily have to affect you

Despite it being one of the main novelties this year, the end of the national reduction for the rent of the main residence does not affect all taxpayers; only those who signed their contract from January 1st 2015. That is, if your contract was signed before that date, you will keep enjoying this 10.05% reduction, as long as your tax base is under 24,107.20 euros (yearly). This is why, if you are considering to change rented home, remember that if you sign a new contract you will lose up to a maximum of 909 euros of this national reduction.

Don’t forget either to include in your income statement the autonomic reduction of the rent of the main residence that for determined groups of people is available in all autonomous communities but Baleares, Murcia and Rioja, and that is higher that the national.

5. …nor the end of the reduction for home

In the case of the reduction for the purchase of a main residence, it happens the same as in the previous case: the reduction has only disappeared for the taxpayers that purchased it from January 1st 2013. Because of that, GESTHA insists that the most important thing is to check that this reduction is listed in our statement  (in some cases, due to mistakes of the fiancial entity the data of the mortgage doesn’t appear), just like it amount, and to do so we must make sure wether there are premiums for life or fire insurance that are linked to the mortgages to be added to the calculation.

It must also be revised that the amount of the mortgage has been fully dedicated to finance the main residence, because if a mortgage extension has been requested for another purpose you must adjust the percentage that fiances exclusively the main residence to avoid a revision form the Tax Office, who will reclaim the difference and fine you.

6. Earned income: two checkings

For your earned incomes, the technicians advise to do two different types of checkings to avoid mistakes. On the one hand, about incomes, because there may exist some which are not in the draft, such as the case of foreign pensionists who are getting paid by a foreign Social Security, which sends the data to the Spanish Administration with great delay; or the case of domestic employees.

On the other hand, there are some expenses that must be included directly by the taxpayer. We mean the union fees, the juridic defense expenses, just as the indication of that, being unemployed, you have accepted a job that has forced you to change your town or if you are a disabled active worker.

7. Be careful with empty homes and properties

The empty homes and properties generate what is called imputation of asset income, a presumed income which is estimated in a percentage of the cadastral value of the home / property. Because of that, you must check that this imputations are correct, fot the AEAT sometimes includes properties which are no longer ours, or where our ex-spouse lives, etc.

8. Forgetting the capital gains has a price

In many occasions the taxpayers forget to state the capital gains, which makes that it has to be the Tax Agency who has to settle it later, which comes with a fine. This happens, mainly, with the sale of buildings or shares, official aid prim the PIVE Plan to buy a vehicle or with the subsidies for the purchase of a home.

You also must note down in the draft if you go for the exemption of the earnings of the sale of the main residence or of shares, under condition of reinvesting the amount obtained in a new main residence or in shares, respectively.

9. Don’t leave out your donations

Other important reductions that are usually not included in the draft arethe ones related to the enrolment in a political party, or donatins, even though this ones sould already be on the draft or in the fiscal data, because the recipients must present the pertinent statement.

You must also remember last year’s donations, because for the reductions to be included in the statement, the entity must have the identificative data of who donates in order to provide them to the AEAT.

This ommision can make you lose a reduction for donations to NGOs included inthe Law 49/2002, which has been increased by the fiscal reform in a 50% for the firs 150 euros donated and a 27.5% for the rest of the contribution. Despite that, the percentage can raise to 32.5% if the amount donated in 2015 and the two previous years is equal or superior, in each one of them, to the one of the previous year.

However, the reduction will be of a 10% if it has been made to legally recognised foundations or to associations of public utility.

10. Don’t let your Pension Plan escape 

The manager of our Pension Plan must provide this data to the AEAT to include them in the draft, and it is important to check they are all correct.

You must keep in mind the reductions that have been approved if the Pension Plan is rescued in the form of capital, wether it is for retirement, disability, dependance, long-term unemployment, serious illness, and (from may 15th 2013 to may 14th 2017), for an execution procedure on the main residence.

 

Source: GESTHA (Union of Tax Ministry Technicians)

Remember that our office is in Catral and you can come to ask any doubts you have, check your draft and confirm your PIT 2015 so that you don’t lose any of this reductions.