When moving to Spain you find out pretty quickly that the way things work here, bureaucratically and lawfully, are very different from the rest of the Western world, particularly the UK. One such example is if you are suspected of making an incorrect tax declaration or filing. Even if advised by your accountant/tax adviser to do so, you are liable and not them. In Spain, simply put, you are guilty until proven innocent of any suspected wrong doing.
With that in mind, one major example is of a self-employed person having their taxes filed incorrectly by their accountant and being unaware. At some point in the future the individual is notified that they have not responded to the tax office’s request to query this, and thus immediately have their income ‘embargoed’ and the monies they are suspected to owe are either taken from their Spanish bank account and/or taken at source from their main customers/invoices.
In one particular instance the tax office claimed they had ‘written confirmation’ that the notice of their investigation was delivered 3 times, however this confirmation is a signed document from the post office delivery person saying they were delivered, not the recipient signing to say he or she received them. Then, due to you not responding, the case is now closed and you are guilty by not replying, thus the money they believed you owed, you now owe and must be paid.
I have seen this happen many times over the years and cause considerable pain and suffering to people. Imagine the tax office saying you owed them €40,000 then taking it from your bank account, or deducting it each month as you received invoice payments. How do you then pay your bills? And in all of this, you are the complete innocent due to your accountant wrongly declaring your taxes.
