How Spanish tax notices reach you abroad

Terms used

• DNI — The DNI is the national identity card for Spanish citizens, whose number also serves as their tax ID.
• DNIe — The DNIe is the Spanish citizens' ID card with a chip that carries its own electronic certificate.
• Cl@ve — Cl@ve is the Spanish government's shared online login system for public services, with several methods.

Key rules

• Unopened notices: An electronic notice you never open still counts as served, and your deadlines run.
• Electronic notices: As an individual you can choose electronic notices, but you are not obliged to.
• Address: Keep your census address or representative up to date, because undeliverable notices can be published in the BOE.
• Missed notice: Ask for a copy straight away and speak to a Spanish tax adviser.

Where your notices go

If you set nothing up, Hacienda sends notices by post to the address in your tax census. That address can be abroad.

If a notice cannot be delivered, Hacienda can publish it in the official state gazette (the BOE). It then counts as served the day after 15 calendar days from its publication have passed, even though you never saw it.

The electronic mailbox

Once you sign up, notices are placed in your mailbox in the tax agency's online office and in the Spanish government's single electronic notification address, the DEHú.

To sign up, you need an electronic certificate, a DNI electrónico or Cl@ve. Without a Spanish ID, you need an electronic certificate, for example from the FNMT (Spain's mint and certificate issuer). The other option is to appoint a representative in Spain.

An unopened notice still counts

After 10 calendar days without access to an electronic notice, the procedure carries on without you, and your payment and appeal time limits start running from the end of those 10 days. Open notices as soon as they appear.

Set up a way to receive notices

Choose one or more of these:

• Change the address for notices in your tax census with modelo 030, the census declaration form for individuals, online or in person.
• Name an address for notices, or a representative with proof of the appointment, when you file a tax return. If you have a representative registered, notices go to their address instead of yours.
• Sign up for electronic notices.

Check first whether a representative or electronic address is already registered for you.

If you miss a notice

1. Ask the tax agency for a copy of the notice. You can do this in person, through the online office or through a representative.
2. You have 1 month from the day after a notice is treated as served to file a recurso de reposición (a request to the same office to reconsider) or an economic-administrative claim (an appeal to the tax tribunal).
3. If the notification was defective, claim nullity in the first act you take part in, or ask for it to count from the day you actually found out.
4. If the debt is already in enforcement, lack of notification is one of the grounds you can object on.