Requesting a Payment Slip Does Not Interrupt the Limitation Period

A taxpayer’s request for a payment slip does not interrupt the limitation period for the Tax Administration’s right to collect tax debts under Article 68(2)(c) of the General Tax Law.

When a taxpayer pays a debt in cash through an authorised entity, the taxpayer is entitled to obtain proof of payment (the term used in Article 41 of the General Collection Regulations) or, in other words, proof of deposit (the term used in Article 34(4) of the same Regulations). This proof is obtained when the credit institution collaborating in the collection process, after checking the relevant details, validates the payment document for a self-assessment or the payment slip for a debt assessed by the Administration.

However, the fact that a payment slip may become proof of payment once validated does not mean that requesting or obtaining it is, by itself, an “action aimed at paying or extinguishing the tax debt”. In reality, it may simply be an action to obtain evidence that releases the taxpayer from the debt. For example, a taxpayer may have paid a debt in cash at a credit institution, but the institution may have failed to validate the payment slip through error or omission. If the taxpayer later asks the institution to validate it in order to obtain proof of payment, that request cannot be regarded as an action aimed at paying or extinguishing the debt. It is merely an attempt to obtain evidence of discharge. In that situation, it is the earlier payment—not the later request to the bank for proof—that would validly interrupt the limitation period for the Spanish Tax Agency’s right to collect the debt.

Nor does the fact that a payment slip is a document the taxpayer can use to pay a tax assessment (Article 19 of the General Collection Regulations, cited above) mean that a request to the Tax Agency for a payment slip qualifies as an “action aimed at paying or extinguishing the tax debt”. Given the significant effect attributed to such a request—interrupting the limitation period for the Administration’s right to collect the assessed debt—case law requires a cautious and restrictive approach. It must be established that the taxpayer’s action was unequivocally directed towards paying or extinguishing the debt. The Court considers that such clear intent cannot be inferred from the mere request for a payment slip; a presumption of intent is not enough.

The request may be made solely for information: to find out which assessed debts the Tax Administration considers outstanding at that time. Since a request for a payment slip is not, in itself, necessarily directed towards paying or extinguishing those debts, it does not interrupt the limitation period for the Administration’s right to collect assessed or self-assessed tax debts.

Therefore, a taxpayer’s request for a payment slip does not interrupt the limitation period.