Requerimiento from Hacienda (Spanish tax notice): what it is, how it arrives and how to reply on time

Which letter from Hacienda have you received: information request, data verification and other types

When the AEAT opens a procedure, the opening communication states which procedure is starting, its scope (the tax and the periods under review), what it is asking you for and the deadline to reply (art. 87.3 of the General Regulation on Tax Management and Inspection, RGAT). Look for this at the top of the document.

• Informative communication or letter. It reminds you of an obligation or warns you about data that do not match, without opening a procedure. It is a chance to correct things yourself.
• Requerimiento de información (information request). It can be made at any time (art. 93 of the General Tax Law, LGT). The document must identify the period and the facts it refers to (art. 55 RGAT).
• Verificación de datos (data verification). The lightest procedure: formal or arithmetical errors, data that do not match what the AEAT holds, an obviously incorrect application of the law, or clarification of an item that does not relate to business activities (art. 131 LGT). It can start with a request or directly with a propuesta de liquidación (proposed assessment), that is, Hacienda's calculation of what it thinks you owe (art. 132 LGT).
• Comprobación limitada (limited review). Broader than data verification: the AEAT examines returns, supporting documents, record books and invoices; your accounts only to confirm they match what it already knows (art. 136 LGT). The opening communication states its nature and scope (art. 137 LGT).
• Inspección (tax inspection). The broadest. It has a time limit of 18 months, or 27 in certain cases, which can be extended under art. 150 LGT. Professional advice from day one is advisable.
• Providencia de apremio (enforcement order). It claims a debt not paid in the voluntary period (the normal payment period), with its surcharge, and warns that your assets may be seized (art. 167 LGT). The surcharge is 5% if you pay before receiving it, 10% if you pay within the period it opens and 20% otherwise (art. 28 LGT).

In summary:

How Hacienda delivers notices: electronic notification, DEHú, paper or the BOE

Who must receive electronic notifications. Legal persons (companies such as an SL, the Spanish private limited company) and entities without legal personality must deal with the authorities electronically (art. 14.2 of Law 39/2015). For the AEAT specifically, art. 4 of Royal Decree 1363/2010 includes public and private limited companies (whose NIF, the tax identification number, starts with A or B), foreign entities with an NIF starting with N, permanent establishments with an NIF starting with W and temporary joint ventures (UTE); also large companies, groups and anyone registered for monthly VAT refunds. Inclusion is communicated by letter (art. 5).

The self-employed individual (autónomo) can choose how to deal with the authorities (art. 14.1), unless they fall into one of those cases. If you practise a profession that requires membership of a professional association, Law 39/2015 requires you to use electronic means for procedures relating to that activity (art. 14.2.c). And if you signed up voluntarily for notificaciones electrónicas (electronic notifications), the same rules apply to you as to a company.

The 10 calendar days. An electronic notification is deemed served when you access its content. If it is mandatory or you chose it, and 10 calendar days pass from when it was made available without you opening it, it is deemed rejected (art. 43.2 of Law 39/2015). That does not cancel it: the procedure continues and the deadline runs all the same. The alert email or text message is for information only: if it does not arrive, the notification is still valid (art. 41.6 and art. 43 of Royal Decree 203/2021).

Where to look. The AEAT posts its electronic notifications on its sede electrónica (online tax office) and on the Dirección Electrónica Habilitada única (DEHú), the single government electronic mailbox (art. 42 of RD 203/2021, which applies to tax matters on a supplementary basis). If a notice is in both, the first access counts (art. 41.7 of Law 39/2015). To log in you need a certificado digital (digital certificate) or Cl@ve, the government's login system. The AEAT online office has a Notifications section.

Courtesy days. If you receive electronic notifications from the AEAT (mandatory or by voluntary sign-up), you can choose up to 30 calendar days a year during which it will not make notices available to you, as long as you request them seven calendar days in advance (art. 3 of Order EHA/3552/2011). They do not protect you against paper notifications.

Paper notification. It is served at your tax address, your workplace, the place where you carry on your activity or any other suitable place (art. 110 LGT). At your tax address or the address you gave for notifications, anyone present who identifies themselves can collect it, including staff employed by your building's comunidad de vecinos (community of owners) (art. 111 LGT). If nobody collects it, a second attempt is made within the following three days, at a different time of day (art. 42.2 of Law 39/2015). Refusing it counts as receiving it.

Notification by comparecencia in the BOE. If after two attempts it has not been possible to notify you (one is enough if you are recorded as unknown), the AEAT publishes a notice in the BOE (Boletín Oficial del Estado, the official state gazette), which comes out on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. You then have 15 calendar days from the day after publication to comparecer (come forward and collect it); if you do not, the notification is deemed served on the day after the deadline, and so are later steps in that procedure, except liquidaciones (assessments) (art. 112 LGT). If you move, especially abroad, notify the AEAT of your new tax address.

The deadline to reply: how working days are counted

The document itself states the specific deadline. The law sets a minimum: information requests and notices opening a procedure give a period of not less than 10 days, counted from the day after notification (art. 55.2 and art. 87.4 RGAT). The period for alegaciones (written representations) against a proposed assessment lasts between 10 and 15 days (art. 99.8 LGT).

Why they are working days. Law 39/2015 applies on a supplementary basis (art. 7.2 LGT and the first additional provision of Law 39/2015). Under its art. 30 the days in a deadline are working days: excluding Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays. In practice:

• You start counting on the day after notification (or the day after it is deemed rejected, if you did not open it).
• A public holiday in your municipality or where the notifying office is based is a non-working day in any case.
• If the last day falls on a non-working day, the deadline moves to the next working day.

An example. You open the notification on Wednesday 14 October 2026 and the request gives you 10 days. Day one is Thursday 15. Skipping the two weekends, and assuming no local holidays, the tenth working day is Wednesday 28 October.

What about August? In tax matters August counts like any other month: neither the LGT nor the RGAT excludes it, and Law 39/2015 only leaves out Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays. If you will be offline in the summer and receive electronic notifications, request the courtesy days described in the previous section in advance.

What documents they usually ask for and how to submit them

You must keep books, invoices and supporting documents, and provide them when requested, in electronic format if asked (art. 29.2 LGT). The most common items:

• Issued and received invoices for the quarters under review, especially those supporting the input VAT you deduct in the modelo 303 (quarterly VAT return).
• Record books, depending on your case (see the guide to the autónomo's VAT record books and the glossary entry for the libro registro de IVA, the VAT record book).
• Proof of payment and bank statements showing that the expense exists and has been paid.
• Contracts or emails explaining a questionable expense (review the autónomo's deductible expenses).
• An explanation of any differences from what others report about you, for example in the modelo 347 (the return of transactions with third parties).

You do not have to provide documents that the rules do not require, nor those you already filed yourself and that the requesting office holds, although you may be asked to confirm specific data (art. 99.2 LGT).

How to submit them. The normal route is to reply through the AEAT online office, using the procedure indicated in the document itself (there is a Requests and communications section), identifying yourself with a digital certificate or Cl@ve and quoting the reference of the document you received. An SL must do this electronically; an autónomo who is not obliged to use electronic means can also file on paper at a registry office. Include a cover letter listing what you provide, use legible PDFs and keep the filing receipt.

Through a representative. You can act through a tax adviser or a gestor (a Spanish administrative and tax agent), and the AEAT will deal with them from then on. For purely procedural steps representation is presumed; to lodge appeals, acknowledge obligations or sign on your behalf, it must be proven, and the AEAT has standard forms for this (art. 46 LGT). This is not the same as the representante fiscal (tax representative) some non-residents need. If you live abroad, the guide to non-resident tax helps you get your bearings.

What happens if you do not reply to a requerimiento from Hacienda

Not replying has two separate consequences.

1. The penalty for ignoring the request. Failing to comply with a duly notified request, failing to allow documents to be examined or failing to appear without good reason is a serious tax offence (art. 203 LGT). Fines rise with each ignored request: fixed for the first two and, in some cases, proportional for the third:

• Requests that do not ask for documents, books or data about your business: 150 € for the first ignored request, 300 € for the second and 600 € for the third.
• If the request is to provide books, invoices, supporting documents or accounts, or if you carry on a business activity and do not provide the data requested: 300 € for the first request, 1,500 € for the second and, for the third, a proportional fine of up to 2% of the previous year's turnover, with a minimum of 10,000 € and a maximum of 400,000 €. If you comply with the request in full before the penalty procedure ends, that fine is reduced to 6,000 €.
• Within an inspection they are higher: with a business activity, 3,000 € and 15,000 € for the first two requests for specific documents, halved if you comply in full before the penalty procedure ends or, if earlier, before the inspection's hearing stage (art. 203.6 LGT).

2. Regularisation (Hacienda correcting your tax) based on its own data. In tax procedures, whoever claims a right has to prove it (art. 105 LGT). If you do not justify an expense or an input VAT invoice, the AEAT will not accept it and will issue a provisional assessment using the data it has: your sales according to what your customers reported, without the expenses or deductions you have not proven. Late-payment interest (intereses de demora) is added to the tax due (art. 26 LGT) and, in a separate penalty procedure, a penalty for the amount left unpaid may follow, proportional to that amount (art. 191 LGT).

Silence does not stop the procedure: it only means it continues without your side of the story. More on the sanción tributaria (tax penalty) in the glossary. What helps most is replying, even if only to explain that a document does not exist.

How to reply properly to a requerimiento from Hacienda

A good reply is complete, well organised and limited to what is asked:

1. Read exactly what is being requested. Tax, period, specific transactions. Answer each point separately.
2. Answer what is asked, no more. Sending the whole year's accounts to answer about three invoices only opens new issues. But do not leave any point unanswered.
3. Explain differences with data. If a customer reported a different amount in their modelo 347, provide the invoices and explain why (a factura rectificativa, or corrective invoice, or a mistake by the customer).
4. If you spot a mistake of your own, acknowledge it in the reply. Once the procedure has started, filing a declaración complementaria (supplementary return) for that tax and period no longer has the effects of the voluntary late-filing surcharge; whatever you pay is treated as a payment on account of the assessment, and no late-payment interest accrues on it from the day after payment (art. 87.5 RGAT).
5. If you need more time, ask for an extension in good time. The office can extend the deadline by up to half the original period (for 10 days, up to 5 more), only once, if you request it before the last three days of the period, justify it and it does not harm third parties. If you receive no answer, it is deemed automatically granted for half the period; the decision cannot be appealed (art. 91 RGAT). If you are summoned to appear in person and cannot attend, request a postponement within the three days following notification.

If you cannot provide a document because it does not exist or has been lost, say so expressly and offer whatever alternative evidence you have (the bank statement for the payment, the contract, a duplicate requested from the supplier). A partial, explained reply is better than silence.

Be careful about what you state: the data you submit yourself are presumed true in your case, and you can only correct them with evidence to the contrary (art. 108.4 LGT).

Proposed assessment and representations: the moment to provide everything

In a data verification and in a limited review, before issuing the provisional assessment the AEAT must send you the propuesta de liquidación (proposed assessment) so that you can make representations (art. 132.3 and art. 138.3 LGT). The period for representations cannot be less than 10 days or more than 15 (art. 99.8 LGT).

This is the key moment: during the representations stage you can see the file, request a copy and provide new documents and evidence, but once it is over no more documentation is added, unless you show that it was impossible for you to provide it earlier (art. 96 RGAT). Whatever you do not provide now, you will probably have to argue later in an appeal.

Then comes the provisional assessment. If you are notified of the assessment between the 1st and the 15th of the month, you have until the 20th of the following month to pay; if notified between the 16th and the last day of the month, until the 5th of the month after next (art. 62.2 LGT). If you cannot pay in one go, you can request an aplazamiento or fraccionamiento (deferral or payment in instalments) within that period.

If there is also a penalty, accepting the regularisation (conformidad) reduces it by 30% for the offences in arts. 191 to 197, and paying the penalty on time without appealing reduces it by a further 40% (art. 188 LGT). If you appeal against the regularisation you lose the 30% reduction, and if you appeal against the assessment or the penalty, the 40% one.

Once the limited review is closed, the AEAT cannot regularise the same matter again unless new facts emerge in different proceedings, and what you expressly accepted can only be challenged if you prove a factual error (art. 140 LGT).

Appeals: recurso de reposición or reclamación económico-administrativa

If you disagree with the assessment or the penalty, the document itself states which appeals are available:

• Recurso de reposición (request for reconsideration). It is optional and is decided by the same office that issued the decision. Deadline: one month from the day after notification (art. 223.1 LGT). Useful if the office did not take a document into account.
• Reclamación económico-administrativa (appeal to the tax tribunal). It is decided by an economic-administrative tribunal, independent of the office that issued the assessment. Deadline: also one month from the day after notification (art. 235.1 LGT). If you are obliged to receive electronic notifications, you must file it through the online office (art. 235.5 LGT).

You cannot use both at once: after a reposición, you wait for it to be decided before going to the tribunal; if you file both, the first is processed and the second is declared inadmissible (art. 222 LGT).

Payment while you appeal. Appealing does not by itself suspend collection. In a reposición, enforcement is suspended automatically if you request it and provide a guarantee (deposit, bank guarantee, among others); if what you are appealing against is a penalty, it is suspended without any guarantee (art. 224.1 LGT).

One-month deadlines run from date to date (art. 30.4 of Law 39/2015). If you are notified on 15 October 2026, the month ends on 15 November, which is a Sunday, so the last day is Monday 16. You will find the information and forms in the appeals and claims section of the AEAT online office.

How long a limited review lasts, expiry and the end of voluntary surcharges

6 months. Data verification and limited reviews are subject to the general maximum period: 6 months from notification of the start (art. 104.1 LGT). To meet it, a single attempt to notify the decision is enough, or making it available to you if you are notified electronically, and dilaciones (delays) not attributable to the authorities, such as an extension you request or documents you hand in late, do not count (art. 104.2 LGT).

Caducidad (expiry). If 6 months pass without a notified decision, the procedure expires (art. 133.1.d) and art. 139.1.b) LGT). Expiry does not prevent the AEAT from opening another procedure as long as its right has not become time-barred: after four years it can no longer assess (art. 66 LGT), but it has a useful effect for you: the steps taken in the expired procedure do not interrupt the limitation period and do not count as a prior request (art. 104.5 LGT). In an inspection, exceeding the 18 or 27 months does not cause expiry but has other effects (art. 150 LGT).

The request as the end of voluntary correction. As long as Hacienda has not requested anything from you, filing late has a limited cost: a recargo (late-filing surcharge) of 1% plus 1% for each full month of delay, or 15% after twelve months, plus late-payment interest from then on, with no penalty (art. 27 LGT). But it only applies without a prior request, meaning any formally notified action aimed at regularising, reviewing, inspecting or assessing the debt (art. 27.1 LGT). Once the procedure has started, filing a return for that tax and period does not have the effects of art. 27 and does not avoid the penalty (art. 87.5 RGAT).

If you know you have something outstanding, correct it before the letter arrives. The guide I missed a Hacienda deadline walks you through the steps, and the late-filing surcharge calculator gives you the figure. And if the request refers to a specific period, periods not included in the procedure can, in principle, still be regularised on your own initiative with a surcharge.

How to prepare so that a requerimiento is not a problem

With your paperwork in order, replying to a request is much simpler:

• Books up to date. Record invoices as they arrive. The guide how to keep your books in Spain explains a simple system; if you have an SL, also review the tax and accounting obligations of an SL.
• Every expense with its supporting document. A full invoice in your name and with your NIF, and a payment you can trace in your bank account.
• Keep records long enough. Hacienda's right to assess becomes time-barred after four years (art. 66 LGT), but if an item from a time-barred year affects one that is not (a depreciation charge, a tax loss carried forward), you will need to be able to justify it for as long as that later year can still be reviewed (art. 70.3 LGT).
• Keep an eye on notifications. Check the DEHú or the online office regularly, register an email address for alerts and, if you receive electronic notifications, request the courtesy days before going on holiday.
• Reconcile with third parties. Check each year what customers and suppliers report about you in their modelo 347.

If you keep your books in kontora, you can export the record books and the supporting documents linked to each entry to attach them to your reply.

Frequently asked questions

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