On the 2nd of October, 2016, Act 39/2015 Common Administrative Procedure of the Public Administration came into force. The purpose of the Law is, amongst many other issues, to regulate relations between Public Administrations and citizens, to implement an eGovernment and to improve the processing of administrative procedures. It is true that in tax matters companies already had to perform their actions with the Tax Agency by telematic means.

However, as of October 2, 2016, the following subjects compulsory have to interact online with the Public Administration to perform any procedure. We refer to relationships with the Tax Office, Social Security, Traffic authorities, etc.

a) Companies.

b) Entities without legal personality, this includes civil societies (Sociedades Civiles), community of assets (Comunidad de Bienes), community of owners (Comunidad de Propietarios) and Estates which have not yet been accepted by the heirs (Herencia Yacente).

c) Individuals who exercise a professional activity for which they must be registered at a Professional Bar providing they act in the exercise of that activity.

d) Those that represent a person, company or entity that has to compulsory interact electronically with the Administration.

e) The employees of the Public Administrations for the procedures and actions they perform with the Administration as public employees.

All the documents to be presented, notifications to be received, allegations and appeals to be made can only be processed online.

Individuals may still use traditional means when dealing with the Administration, although they also have the right to choose to do so online.

All Administrations must have a General Electronic Register, in which they will make the entries of any document that is presented or that is received in any administrative body.

The non compliance of this obligation may entail the risk of the documents presented being considered to have been lodged out of the statutory term foreseen if they have to be submitted before a certain deadline such as the appeals. Also in tax matters this is considered a tax offence provided for in article 199 of Act 58/2003, of December 17, (General Tax Law), which establishes a penalty of 250 Euros, when not submitting the documents addressed to the Tax office online.

Please note the information provided in this article is of general interest only and is not to be construed or intended as substitute for professional legal advice. This article may be posted freely in websites or other social media so long as the author is duly credited. Plagiarizing, whether in whole or in part, this article without crediting the author may result in criminal prosecution.

Rafael Berdaguer
Lawyer within the firm
Rafael Berdaguer Abogados based in Marbella, Spain.
www.berdaguerabogados.com
Copyright © 2016  Rafael Berdaguer Abogados All Rights Reserved

Please note the information provided in this article is of general knowledge only and is not to be construed or intended as substitute for professional legal advice.