The Tax Agency will have access to the database of notaries on real ownership of companies to strengthen the fight against fraud

Agreement between the Tax Agency and the General Council of Notaries, published in the Official Gazette of February 15, 2020, regarding the provision of information.

The information will be updated monthly and will be very useful for the fight against tax fraud generated from the creation of opaque corporate frameworks.

The apparent lack of relationship between these types of companies facilitates the creation of false or operational billing networks such as the illegal placement of income in entities without effective taxation, obtaining improper returns or the lifting of assets.

In turn, the Agency's access to the Single Notarial Computerized Index is agreed, which will offer information of great relevance for tax control, such as the identification of persons who, before a notary, grant and receive powers, as well as the dates of appointment and revocation of those powers.

5th of February 2020.- The Tax Agency and in society as a whole.

The Real Ownership Database

The systematic access of the Agency to the information of notaries on the real ownership of legal persons will strengthen the control of corporate networks of supposedly independent entities.

The apparent lack of connection between this type of companies makes it easier for those who control them to create fake billing networks or fraudulent operations such as reciprocal billing to eliminate group benefits, the illicit displacement of income to entities without effective taxation, obtaining returns inadmissible or the lifting of goods.

The agreement also contemplates that both parties will agree on the way in which the Agency may obtain, to the extent that it reaches the information in the database, the sequence of entities through which a natural person is the legal holder of some actions or participations, as well as the real percentage of their participation (based on the successive percentages of indirect participations).

Information of the Single Notarial Index General Council of Notaries have signed an agreement (published in the Official Gazette of 15^th of February, 2020) under which the Agency may access the information contained in the Database of Real Ownership of Notaries, information that It will be very useful for the fight against tax fraud in relation to the creation of opaque corporate frameworks for fraudulent purposes.

Likewise, the Agency may also have a periodic supply of information on certain operations or groups of operations contained in the Single Notarial Computerized Index, as well as direct and individualized telematic access to the Single Index, and the possibility of make specific information requirements to the Notaries.

The agreement between both parties implies a strengthening of the collaboration that the Agency and the Notaries had been maintaining based on previous agreements, as well as a significant improvement in obtaining information for the fight against fraud, offering, therefore, benefits that will result.

In parallel, the agreement contemplates the supply to the Agency of acts and operations contained in the Single Notarial Computerized Index, a supply that will be made by computer or telematic means, with a biweekly update of the information.

In this case, it is of special importance for the Agency the information that it will obtain on acts and operations in which a legal person or a 'trust' participates, given the assiduity with which corporate operations are carried out with the sole purpose of creating opacity networks that allow the realization of fraud activities. The analysis of the information contained in the index will facilitate the Agency the study of complex corporate frameworks through ‘Big Data’ technology.

In addition, through the Single Index, the Agency will have a periodic supply of the identifying data of constituents (the persons who grant a power to a third party to act on their behalf), attorneys-in-fact and company administrators, as well as the dates of appointment and revocation of those powers.

Similarly, access to the index will allow the Agency to obtain information of interest for tax control over financing operations, real estate, financial assets and other transferable securities, and also operations in which the intervenors before the notary have refused to identify the means of payment used, or not fully accredited, or cases in which they have breached the obligation to provide the notary with the Tax Identification Number, or the document 'S-1' of cash movements when it is relevant.

Agreement of facilitation of arrangements for notaries

On the other hand, the General Council of Notaries and the Tax Agency have also signed an agreement that establishes a general framework for collaboration on the terms and conditions under which notaries can take actions before the Agency on behalf of the taxpayers who have intervened in your notary.

Thus, it is facilitated to the notaries the presentation of declarations of a census nature that will allow the obtaining of NIF in certain cases, as well as the presentation of declarations in the scope of the Tax on Inheritance and Donations when the taxpayers must pay taxes to the State.

Source: AEAT (07/02/2019)