The tax authorities' courtesy days: if you are going on vacation, avoid receiving notifications

Notifications from the tax authorities are very frightening, and with good reason: failing to respond to one of their tax notifications can result in a fine ranging from €150 to €600,000 in the most serious cases.

If you want to avoid this happening to you, in this article we explain how to request up to 30 courtesy days, known as a "tax vacation."
What are tax vacations or courtesy days?
Generally, when you receive a notification from the Spanish Tax Agency (AEAT), you have 10 calendar days to sign it and confirm that you have received it properly.
It is important to note that not signing it does not exempt you from the consequences, so it could result in a fine. In other words, once this period has elapsed, the Tax Agency considers the notification to have been read and the penalty period begins.
However, like any worker, you are entitled to some vacation days during which you can fully rest.
The tax authorities are aware of this and offer up to 30 courtesy days. During these days, no tax notifications will be sent to you if you are a taxpayer (obligado tributario) included in the Enabled Electronic Address system (Dirección Electrónica Habilitada, DEH).
Who can request tax vacation days
The following persons and entities, among others, are required to receive communications and notifications by electronic means:
1. Legal entities.
2. Entities without legal personality (jointly owned property arrangements [comunidades de bienes], civil-law partnerships, etc.)
3. Those carrying on a professional activity that requires mandatory membership of a professional association, for the procedures and actions they carry out with the public administrations in the exercise of that professional activity.
Self-employed workers and other individuals may voluntarily opt into this system. They will choose the electronic notification procedures to which they wish to subscribe.
How to request a tax vacation
The request must be made through the Tax Agency's e-Office (Sede Electrónica). Bear in mind that, since these are calendar days, Saturdays and Sundays must also be selected.
To use this service, the interested party must have a digital certificate issued in their name. In addition, to avoid being notified, we must request it at least 7 calendar days in advance of the vacation period we wish to take.
If we have made a mistake or at some point decide to change our vacation dates, it will be possible to modify this calendar, provided that we do so 7 days before the date we are going to modify. Authorized representatives before the Tax Agency may also request courtesy days, which is even more important for them since they handle notifications for many of their clients.
Recommendations
Mark the 30 days as early as possible. They must be selected at least one week in advance, so this cannot be done overnight.
Start the marked days a few days before you leave on vacation so that you do not receive a notification just the day before you leave. That way, you will not disrupt your plans by having to prepare the documentation needed to respond to the notification.
End them a few days before you return, since if you receive a notification on those days it will remain in your mailbox available for download for 10 days, so you will be able to download it without any problem when you get back.
Penalties of between €150 and €600,000
According to the current position of the courts, following a recent decision of the Central Economic-Administrative Court (TEAC), the electronic mailbox is treated as equivalent to the traditional mailbox for all purposes.
Thus, under the now-unified criterion, a taxpayer who, being required to receive communications from the AEAT by electronic means, does not access the content of the information requests notified by those means may commit the offense defined in Article 203 of Law 58/2003 (General Tax Law, LGT), even if they have had no actual knowledge of their existence.
This offense, which carries fines of between €150 and €600,000, covers conduct that tends to delay, hinder, or prevent the actions of the tax authorities, including failure to comply with duly notified requests. Or, put another way, failing to comply with what is requested in the notification will be considered "obstruction, excuse, or refusal with respect to the actions of the tax authorities," and the self-employed worker could be penalized, depending on the seriousness of the breach.