Can you challenge an enforcement order? What grounds are allowed?

Clarify your doubts by consulting your particular case

Yes. The Spanish General Tax Law (LGT) sets out an exhaustive list of grounds for objecting to an enforcement order in Article 167(3):

1. The debt has been fully extinguished, or the tax authority’s right to collect it is time-barred. Limitation must be assessed under the statutory rules on calculation and interruption; it is not enough to count elapsed time without reviewing the case file.

2. An application for deferral, instalments or set-off was filed during the voluntary payment period, or another statutory ground for suspending collection applies.

3. The assessment giving rise to the debt was not served.

4. The assessment was annulled.

5. An error or omission in the enforcement order prevents identification of the debtor or the debt being enforced.

Prior payment may be raised as full or partial extinction of the debt. Filing an application for deferral or instalments does not by itself mean it was granted; its effect depends on when it was filed and on the rules governing suspension. As a general rule, an objection to an enforcement order cannot reopen any substantive issue in the underlying assessment beyond these statutory grounds.

Preparing an objection in an individual case requires reviewing the enforcement order, the underlying assessment, service records, dates and proof of payment or of any application for deferral, instalments, set-off or suspension.