SPAIN Law and Practice Contributed by: Raúl Salas and Elena Ferrer-Sama, RocaJunyent
9.11 Country-by-Country Reporting and Transparency Provisions Spain supports all internationally accepted reporting requirements, such as CbC reporting or aggressive tax planning resulting from EU Council Directive 2011/16 in relation to cross-border tax arrangements (DAC6). Spain will likely make a big effort towards implement - Spain has introduced a Digital Service Tax (often known as the “GAFA tax” or “Google tax”) aimed at applying a 3% tax on the revenues of tech giants such as Google, Facebook, Apple and Amazon on Span - ish territory (see 2.8 Other Taxes on Transactions ). It only applies to companies belonging to a group with a total worldwide turnover of more than EUR750 mil - lion and with Spanish operations amounting to more than EUR3 million. ing any new transparency requirements. 9.12 Digital Economy Businesses 9.13 Approach to Digital Services Taxation Spain will surely align its domestic legislation with international OECD digital economic taxation, as soon as there is sufficient consensus on this. In the mean - time, it is important to bear in mind that the Spanish approach to PEs is still one of the most aggressive approaches, leading to the existence of a Spanish PE as soon as there is a virtual presence in Spain (without the need for a clear physical presence). 9.14 Offshore IP Provisions Spain has not introduced specific provisions or ben - efits dealing with offshore taxation of intellectual prop - erty.
ticipation exemption is more generous than the Span - ish one. 9.9 Anti-Avoidance Rules Spain approving the MLI places a broad limitation on tax benefits resulting from DTAs where it is reasonable to conclude – in light of all facts and circumstances – that obtaining such benefit was the main purpose of the transactions. This limitation, together with the existing GAAR, would make artificial inbound or out - bound tax structures easy to challenge for the Span - ish Tax Agency. Hence, it becomes critical to gather a defence file justifying the business grounds for any tax structure. 9.10 Transfer Pricing and IP Taxation Transfer pricing rules in Spain were already very detailed and broad. Consequently, almost no changes have been introduced after BEPS, apart from the CbC reporting requirements. For financial years starting after 22 June 2024, CbC reports must be made public by companies belong - ing to a group with a total worldwide turnover of more than EUR750 million. It should be borne in mind that the deadline is shorter than that provided in other countries. Spanish enti - ties are required to publish the information within six months, whereas, as a general rule, the applicable deadline in most member states is 12 months, in line with the Directive.
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