Cooperative compliance, tax governance and taxpayer rights and guarantees

Abstract

Within the model of cooperative compliance with tax obligations, the aim is to determine whether, in the current configuration of Tax Governance, taxpayers' rights and guarantees take precedence over the obligations imposed on them, especially if we take into account the new obligations arising from the transposition of the DAC6 into Spanish legal system. In order to try to balance rights and obligations, within a cooperative relationship based on transparency and mutual trust, it would be desirable to arbitrate some mechanism that takes into account the effort made by taxpayers, introducing regulatory amendments that allow for the exclusion of fraud, or to incorporate certain incentives for entities that implement efficient models of cooperative compliance, a comparative law proposal being the French law that recognises the right to regularisation "in case of error", together with the proposal in 2022 of the Council for the Defence of Taxpayers on the incorporation of the "right to error" in the Spanish tax system. It also advocates strengthening the instruments for information and assistance to those obliged to communicate cross-border mechanisms subject to communication, especially in the case of responses to tax queries, prior assessment agreements or the necessary publication of interpretative guides, which will undoubtedly provide greater legal certainty by providing greater uniformity and transparency to the criteria for interpretation and application of the rule.

Especially when, in a context in which the cooperative relationship is not based on the idea of a power relationship between the Administration and taxpayers but on mutual trust and transparency, this must also be shown on the side of the Administration, which, in addition to being transparent, must promote conflict prevention actions, together with assistance and collaboration