Today, Friday, March 13, Royal Decree-Law 7/2020 of March 12, has been approved, bringing urgent measures into force to respond to the economic impact of COVID-19.

In the tax field, article 14 of this document specifies the application of measures directed at making tax debt deferrals more flexible, specifically aimed at SMEs and the self-employed.

Other measures are expected in areas such as labour, and in particular in relation to the relaxation of ERTEs, but so far no measures have been confirmed in this area.

Specifically, for those companies with a volume of operations not exceeding € 6,010,121.04 in 2019, the following will be granted:

  1. The postponement of submission of all those tax declarations and self-assessments whose filing deadline is between March 13, 2020, and May 30, 2020.
  2. The deferment is also extended to tax debts that to date were not deferrable such as:
    1. Those that must be met by the withholding party or the person required to make payments on account (for example, Form 111, Form 115, Form 123).
    2. VAT (Form 303).
    3. Fractional payments of corporation tax (Form 202).

The applications submitted must comply with the requirements referred to in article 82.2.a) of the General Tax Law. For practical purposes, it means that the global amount of deferment to be requested by each taxpayer for all their debts cannot exceed € 30,000.

The conditions for the postponement to be granted will be the following:

  1. The term will be for six months.
  2. No default interest will be accrued during the first three months of deferment.

On the other hand, the Government has also approved credit lines (ICO) of € 400 million.

Although it seems that this measure may alleviate treasury tensions in the short term, it seems insufficient in view of the general slowdown that the economy of our country will experience.

For this reason, it is expected that, in the next few days, additional measures will be approved.