4.7. Measures adopted by the Tax Agency in relation to COVID-19

The exceptional situation experienced during 2020 resulting from the pandemic caused by COVID-19 has meant the need to adopt extraordinary measures and adapt the operation of the Tax Agency to the new situation.

In parallel with the declaration of the state of alarm throughout the national territory, which limited the right of free movement of people and which was extended until June 7 of last year, the General Director, by Resolution of March 13, 2020, authorized the different management centers of the Tax Agency to establish a protocol with the measures that were necessary to develop the cases of temporary suspension of activities and flexibility of the working day and implementation of teleworking in their areas of competence, which in practice meant the generalization of teleworking in all Departments and Delegations of the Agency, with the exception of exceptions linked to the provision of essential public services that are incompatible with this figure throughout this period of time.

After the first weeks of the state of emergency, the gradual, homogeneous and progressive return of the Tax Agency staff to the on-site workplace began, which would guarantee both the safety of the employees and the provision of the service. More than a year later, we still cannot speak of a complete return to normality.

To facilitate the teleworking of the Tax Agency staff since the beginning of the state of emergency, the IT Department carried out various developments that allowed almost all of the staff to work from their homes, allowing access to the mobile work environment and enabling not only the holding of internal videoconference meetings and with taxpayers (VIVI system) but also the attention to taxpayers, through new help and video assistance services.

The submission of pre-declarations (PDF) was established during the state of alarm, or changes in the Authentication Systems, which would allow to face, with the necessary guarantees, the situation generated by the closure of offices or changes in the notification systems.

Likewise, during 2020, it has been necessary for the Tax Agency to carry out various actions in response to urgent and extraordinary measures progressively adopted to respond to the economic and social impact caused by the health crisis and which had repercussions in the tax area:

At the same time, a section was implemented on the Tax Agency's website called "COVID-19 tax measures" in which an attempt was made to answer all the doubts that the situation generated, both from a regulatory and procedural point of view, including a constantly updated compilation of frequently asked questions.

In the area of Tax Management, following the approval through various royal decrees of exceptional measures that involved the suspension, extension or modification of the deadlines of the procedures, it was necessary to adopt changes in the applications. These deadlines were applied ex officio, unless expressly waived by the taxpayers, making it necessary to even allow the acceptance of said measures by those taxpayers of Personal Income Tax, VAT and Corporate Tax who submitted their self-assessments prior to the approval of the aforementioned measures and wished to benefit. to them, for which a system was implemented consisting of the interested party submitting a new self-assessment with content adjusted to the options they wished to avail of and, additionally, a simple form that identified the first self-assessment submitted, which It allowed to accelerate the process of rectification of the self-assessment initially presented by the Administration, with cancellation of its economic effects.

Other measures adopted were the modification of form 200 to incorporate the possibility of filing a second declaration within the extraordinary period enabled for those entities that by the ordinary date of filing the tax had not been able to approve their annual accounts, or, within the framework of the 2019 Income campaign, the promotion of the "We Call You" Plan (PLL), which allowed for a large part of face-to-face assistance in offices to be replaced by telephone assistance, guaranteeing an optimal level of service, as well as, from June, the start of face-to-face assistance in offices for face-to-face assistance for the filing of declarations, in compliance with strict protocols to guarantee the safety of officials and taxpayers.

In the field of Inspection, teleworking has allowed for a certain normality in the development of actions, without prejudice to the difficulties in management and coordination of teams and units that the lack of physical presence has caused. In the context of the pandemic, the implementation of the VIVI (Virtual Visits) project has been promoted, a voluntary system for taxpayers that allows, during an inspection procedure, to provide documents, sign the act and continue the file, making it possible to overcome existing spatial limitations.

In the area of tax collection, the health crisis prompted the implementation of the REC@T project, the Collection Telephone Assistance Center, through a single national number. The REC@T service provides assistance and information on all aspects of tax collection, providing this service in Spanish and in various co-official languages, giving citizens the opportunity to pay their debts by telephone, request deferrals, installments and compensation, change direct debits for deferrals and installments, consult debts, proceed to lift embargoes, and in general, obtain all the information and assistance in tax collection, allowing processing with taxpayer identification through the Cl@vePin system, a highly secure system.

In the area of Customs and Excise, it was necessary to speed up authorisations for the use of alcohol for the manufacture of antiseptic hydrogels or surface disinfectants with exemption application. Furthermore, during the state of alarm, the reception of alcohol by Firefighters, Civil Guard, Police, Army and Health Centers was authorized to use it in disinfection tasks with exemption application.

In addition, the movement of fermented beverages (wine, beer, intermediate products and other fermented beverages) for the production of alcohol was facilitated, as well as the departure to an alcohol factory for the manufacture of alcohol, of the residual alcohol obtained in the dealcoholization operations carried out in factories of beer, wine or other fermented beverages or of intermediate products.

In terms of foreign trade, since the declaration of the State of Emergency, various measures have been adopted to continue providing the service, guaranteeing the customs clearance of goods, with special attention to imports of health products, requiring permanent coordination between the Customs Department and the Spanish Agency for Medicines and Health Products. Export. Regarding the requirement for an export licence for certain products, close cooperation was also required with the Directorate General for Trade Policy of the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Tourism, the body responsible for granting such licences.

It was in the Customs area where the development of the VIVI project began to enable actions to be carried out through a digital videoconferencing system that allows bidirectional and simultaneous communication of image and sound, visual, auditory and verbal interaction between the taxpayer and the acting body, guaranteeing its secure transmission and reception, ensuring its authorship, authenticity and integrity.

In 2020, the international presence of the Tax Agency was also affected as a result of the serious health crisis. However, rapid adaptation was possible, maintaining institutional participation through videoconferences with the various institutions and international organizations, providing virtual technical assistance, and conducting online courses and seminars.

The various International Organizations have emphasized in their work program the response of the Tax Administrations to the COVID-19 crisis, both with regard to their relations with taxpayers, as well as their internal organization (human resources, digitalization, computer security) and the future recovery process.

The IT Department had to implement numerous developments in all areas of the Tax Agency to facilitate its action in a new and different scenario, also impacting on certain horizontal actions that affected various areas and that were intended to resolve the situation generated by the closure of offices, such as the strengthening of telephone support by increasing the automatic voice response systems (VRU) or the expansion of the services provided by the CAT. In addition, in terms of registration, the number of procedures enabled with Cl@ve was increased, and the submission of pre-declarations was permitted.

Outside the strictly tax sphere, the Tax Agency, during the health crisis, has developed various actions to facilitate the implementation of the regulatory changes approved to minimize the impact of the pandemic in the economic and fiscal sphere, with completely extraordinary deadlines for putting them into production.

Thus, important developments have been necessary to enable the transfer of information to the INSS for proper management of the Minimum Vital Income. In this area, other sets of information that were not exchanged until now have had to be added to the usual supplies.

Work has also been done with the State Public Employment Service to facilitate the management of ERTE.