COVID- 19: Is the extension of deadlines for filing returns other than for VAT or corporate income tax restricted for small and medium-sized companies included in tax groups?

However, expressly excluded from this option are:

The wording of the article creates doubts over whether entities with revenues not higher than €600,000, which are part of a VAT group or a group for corporate income tax purposes, may extend the filing and payment deadlines for returns and self-assessments relating to other taxes. This happens, for example, in relation to withholding tax returns, which are filed by every entity individually, despite belonging to a tax group; or, even, to entities with revenues not higher than €600,000 that belong to a group for corporate income tax purposes, in relation to their VAT returns.

From a literal interpretation of the article, it might be thought, that groups are mentioned in absolute terms, meaning that the scope of that exception prevents the members of a tax group from extending the deadlines for all their tax returns.

In VAT groups and groups for corporate income tax purposes, however, it is the group (represented by their parent company) that has to fulfill the group’s tax obligations with the Spanish public finance authority (article 163 nonies of VAT Law 37/1992, of December 28, 1992, and article 56 of Corporate Income Tax Law 27/2014, of November 27, 2014); whereas, for other taxes, every individual entity has taxpayer or taxable person status and, as such, is required to fulfill procedural and substantive obligations. This, combined with what, in our view, is the purpose of the article, should allow it to be concluded that the only returns excluded from the extension of deadlines are those related to tax group regimes for VAT and corporate income tax purposes (forms 322, 353 and 222), not the other returns that are filed individually.