1. Suspension of administrative deadlines
In addition to the suspension of terms and procedural deadlines of all jurisdictional orders established in the second additional provision of the Royal Decree 463/2020 of 14th March, in which the state of alarm is declared in order to manage the health crisis caused by COVID-19, with effect from shortly before midnight on 14 March 2020 and for the duration of its validity, and any extensions thereof, the third additional provision of the aforementioned Royal Decree provides, for the same period, for the suspension of terms and the interruption of deadlines for the processing of procedures by public sector bodies
The suspension of terms and the interruption of deadlines affects the entire public sector, as shown in the Law 39/2015 of 1st October of the Common Administrative Procedure of Public Administration, although procedures and resolutions referring to situations closely linked to the state of alarm are exempted from this standstill.
It is explicitly provided that, as an exception, the competent body may, by means of a reasoned decision, adopt such measures of organisation and instruction as are strictly necessary to avoid serious damage to the rights and interests of the person concerned in the proceedings and provided that the latter agrees, or when the person concerned agrees that the time limit should not be suspended.
In this same sense, it is necessary to take into account that the Community of Madrid, through an agreement with its Governing Council of 13th March 2020, had previously declared the period from 13 to 26 March 2020 inclusive to be non-working days. This means that the terms and periods of proceedings before bodies based in the Region of Madrid or those in which the interested parties have their domicile in the Region of Madrid have been paralysed since Friday 13 March, inclusive.
2. Suspension of limitation and expiration periods.
In parallel to the suspension of administrative deadlines, the fourth additional provision of Royal Decree 463/2020 itself establishes that the periods of limitation and expiry of any actions and rights are suspended during the period of validity of the state of alert and, where appropriate, any extensions adopted.
3. Tax debt deferrals.
On the other hand, Article 14 of Royal Decree Law 7/2020, of 12 March, which adopts urgent measures to respond to the economic impact of the COVID-19, establishes the concession of tax debt deferrals within the scope of the State Tax Administration for all tax returns-settlements and self-assessments of the self-employed and SMEs – since the debtor is required to be a person or entity with a volume of operations not exceeding 6. 010,121.04 euros in the year 2019- whose filing and payment period ends from 13 March 2020 and up to 30 May 2020, both inclusive, provided that the applications submitted up to that date meet the requirements referred to in Article 82.2.a) of the previous Law (amount limited to 30,000 euros).
Explicitly included among the tax debts that can be deferred by this system are those derived from withholdings and payments on account, taxes levied and payments in instalments.
The conditions of deferral will be the following:
(a) Six-month period.
(b) No interest on arrears shall accrue during the first three months of the deferment
The State Tax Administration Agency has published on its website provisional instructions for requesting these extraordinary deferments, which can be accessed via the following link:
Provisional instructions for requesting deferrals under Royal Decree Law 7/2020, of 12 March
More Information:
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T: +34 91 436 00 90
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T: +34 93 488 28 02
info@lupicinio.com
