Reporting assets outside Spain – Form 720

Do you have to complete the tax declaration this year?

We started with Modelo 720 in 2013. This form, issued by the Spanish Tax Authority, is for information purposes only according to a requirement that exists within the European Union.

Every resident who has assets outside of Spain over 50,000€, within any one group, has to complete it.

The groups are:

• Bank accounts (group 1)
• Pension plans and investments (group 2)
• Property (group 3)

The assets must be declared in three groups:

Group 1: accounts held abroad where the total balance of all the accounts exceeds €50,000. This includes bank, savings and deposit accounts where you are the account holder or have had authorization over the funds during 2015.

Group 2: other assets and pensions held abroad exceeding €50,000 in value. This includes bonds, stocks and shares, life insurance, pension plans and annuities that are currently being paid. You are in this category if they have either a total value or a surrender value on the 31^st December 2015 of €50,000 or more. We can confirm that private and company pensions currently being drawn are included in this category if their capitalization value exceeds the 50,000€ limit.

Group 3: property or business premises abroad. This applies to you if you live in Spain but still own a business or house in another country whose purchase value was more than €50,000.

Who needs to complete it this year?

If you completed the 720 last year and your circumstances have not changed then there is no need to complete one this year.

You should complete one this year if:

• You are a new resident in Spain and this is your first tax year
• You did not declare for 2014 and should have
• There has been an alteration in your circumstances such as: You have purchased or sold property, Investments have matured, You have changed account numbers, You have cancelled, closed or sold previously declared assets
• Your assets have increased by 20,000€ or more of total assets in any of the groups previously declared
• You declared last year, but this year have reached more than 50,000€ in a previously undeclared category

What will happen if I don’t do it?

The fines published by the Spanish Tax Authority are substantial. They include:

*       Non-presentation/ false information – fine of 5,000€ for every piece of information with a minimum fine of 10,000€

*       Late presentation/ form wrongly presented e.g. not presented electronically – fine of 100€ for each piece of information with a minimum fine of 1,500€

Late presentation only refers to those asset declarations that are voluntarily presented and not those prompted by demands from the Spanish Tax Authority.

What should I do next?

The form is not easy to complete and requires a ‘signature’ to do so. Most people need to engage with a fiscal representative to help them complete it. The next deadline is the 31^st March.