Spain drops VAT books requirements for VAT returns

The Spanish VAT authorities have decided to withdraw a requirement to submit supporting VAT records with monthly VAT returns.

The requirement was originally introduced in 2009, and required all Spanish VAT registered businesses to submit accounting books at the same time as their returns – the 20^th of the months following the reporting period end.  However, it has only ever been properly enforced for businesses on the express Spanish VAT refund schemes.  This includes company importing or exporting.

Due to the administrative backlog and weight of data, Spain has now decided not to push ahead with the requirement for all other companies.  The tax code will therefore be changed from affect from 1 January 2014.