What is the procedure for enforced recovery?

Clarify your doubts by consulting your particular case

Administrative acts subject to administrative law are presumed valid and, as a general rule, enforceable as provided by law. This presumption does not make them immune from challenge or render every underlying fact irrebuttably true. The Spanish General Tax Law (LGT) governs executive tax collection and the enforcement procedure (procedimiento de apremio).

The executive collection period and the enforcement procedure are related but distinct. The executive period begins, depending on the type of debt, on the day after the voluntary payment deadline expires or, for a self-assessment filed without payment, under the rule in Article 161(1)(b) LGT. The enforcement procedure then begins when an enforcement order (providencia de apremio) is served.

The enforcement order identifies the outstanding debt, calculates the applicable executive surcharge and demands payment. It is sufficient legal title to start the enforcement procedure; current law does not require a separate “certificate of outstanding debt” (certificación de descubierto). The 5% executive surcharge applies if the whole debt is paid before the order is served; the reduced 10% surcharge applies if the whole debt and the surcharge are paid within the deadline in Article 62(5) LGT; otherwise the ordinary 20% surcharge applies. The 5% and 10% surcharges exclude late-payment interest accrued since the executive period began; the ordinary 20% surcharge is compatible with that interest.

After service of the enforcement order, the taxpayer has the payment period under Article 62(5) LGT. If the debt is not paid within that period, the tax authority proceeds to attach assets and rights, as the order must warn. Attachment must respect proportionality, the statutory order of attachment and exemptions from seizure, and may cover the unpaid debt, applicable interest, executive surcharges and enforcement costs.

Attached assets may be realised through the procedures and in the cases permitted by law, including auction, tender or direct award under the regulatory conditions. As a general rule, the authority cannot sell them until the underlying tax assessment is final, subject to statutory exceptions. Unsold assets are not automatically awarded to the State.

If all persons liable for payment are declared failed for collection purposes and the claim is declared wholly or partly uncollectible, the procedure ends to that extent. It may resume within the limitation period if the authority later learns that a liable person is solvent. The procedure also ends when the amount due is paid or the debt is extinguished on another ground.

Grounds for objecting to an enforcement order
The LGT restricts objections to these grounds: the debt has been fully extinguished or the right to collect it is time-barred; an application for deferral, instalments or set-off was filed during the voluntary payment period, or another ground for suspending collection applies; the tax assessment was not notified; the tax assessment was annulled; or an error or omission in the enforcement order prevents identification of the debtor or the debt. As a general rule, an objection to enforcement cannot be used to reopen other substantive issues concerning the underlying assessment.