For the last couple of years, the Agencia Tributaria has been rolling out a service by which Spanish companies and Spanish establishments of overseas companies are required to register for Electronic Notifications (NotificacionesElectrónicas Obligatorias).
This involves applying for an Electronic Certificate for the company and once registered, all Tax Office correspondence for the company is received electronically rather than by post. This electronic mailbox system is known as Dirección Electrónica Habilitada (DEH).
All Tax Office correspondence can then be viewed by logging in at a website dedicated to this service:http://notificaciones.060.es or in the Agencia Tributaria’s online service at https://www.agenciatributaria.gob.es
Given that is is a compulsary requirement, the Tax Administration is certainly not encouraging companies to register by making it easy.
So here’s a guide that we hope will make the process a little less stressful for you.
The easy part- reserving an appointment with the Agencia Tributaria
1. Go to the website of the FNMT (Fabrica Nacional de Moneda y Timbre), the official department which issues electronic certifcates, at the follow address:
https://www.sede.fnmt.gob.es/certificados/persona-juridica/obtener-certificado-software/solicitar-certificado
Enter your company CIF and click on “Enviar peticion”. The system will then give you a code (Codigo de Solicitud) which you should print out.
2. Go to the Agencia Tributaria website at the following address and find the Cita Previa option:
Enter your company CIF (referred to here as NIF), company name in the first two boxes.
Then below select the first option: (Solo para acreditar la identidad para obtener el certificado electronico de la FNMT) and click on “Enviar”.
Further text will then display and you should click on “Ya dispongo del codigo de solicitud”. Click on “Enviar” and then make an appointment (Cita) at the nearest branch of the Tax Office which deals with this matter. It is likely to be the main Tax Office (Delegacion de Hacienda) in your province. The system will confirm the appointment and you should print this out.
The difficult part- knowing which documents to take along to the Tax Office
1. Printout of the Codigo de Solicitud and appointment confirmation.
2. A copy of your NIE, passport and company CIF card.
3. The Mercantile Registry certificate:
This is where most people come unstuck, and this is the fault of the Agencia Tributaria, whose guidance documents do not mention exactly what is required or how to obtain it.
The documentation they insist on you having is confirmation issued by the Mercantile Registry (Registro Mercantil) where your company is registered, of:
– The company registration details.
– The current administrators. This must issued within 10 days preceeding the appointment.
In Spanish, these requirements are Constitución y personalidad jurídica y administrador vigente.
Now just to make things difficult, a normal Mercantile Registry printout, obtained online, is not accepted. You need to contact your Mercantile Registry with a special request for these certificates.
For instance, in Barcelona this can be done by sending an e-mail to certificados@registromercantilbcn.es with your completed application form which can be found at http://www.registromercantilbcn.es.
The Registry will then reply to you within around 7 days, notifying you that the certificate is ready for you to pick up in person and pay at the desk. As per December 2013 the charge is around 25 Euros.
Each Registry has its own way of operating. For instance the Malaga Registry website gives no information about how to obtain this certificate, and the Cadiz Registry does not even have a website ! In such cases, in order to avoid a potentially long journey to your provincial Registry, you can sign up at the central Mercantile Registry online portal https://www.registradores.org/registroVirtual/init.do, where you can order and pay for the certificates online.This portal does have an English option, although the translations are sometimes less than accurate.
Visit to the Agencia Tributaria and downloading your company’s electronic certificate
On arrival at the Tax Office, you should select Cita Previa at the ticket machine and enter the details required (probably your company CIF) and you will be given a ticket to the correct queue. Assuming all goes well and they process your application, you should wait a day or so then download your Electronic Certificate at the FNMT website at the following address, entering your CIF and the same Codigo de Solicitud obtained at the outset.
Important: you must install the certificate on the same computer from which you obtained the original Codigo de Solicitud !
You will then be able to access the Agencia Tributaria’s electronic notifications for your company at either of the websites detailed in the first section above.