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Today, almost everything is within the reach of a click. You can start a car with one finger, pay with your mobile phone, go shopping or order food via application and even debate philosophical issues with artificial intelligence. With the help of technology, administrative procedures have also been simplified, perhaps less romantic but just as necessary, such as the income statement. The Tax Agency has reinforced its digital profile: it allows the personal income tax model to be presented through its website and application —in addition to continuing to offer telephone and face-to-face assistance to those who require it—, and has launched a virtual assistant to solve doubts. Platforms and agencies have also emerged online that prepare and present the declaration for the taxpayer, that without the need to use it, they only have to register and pay the fee that is requested for the service.
The business is still in its infancy, but it is going up. The platforms offer competitive prices, the process can be managed without leaving home and they have the advantage that the language haciendo complicated “The application of the Tax Agency can sometimes be difficult to understand and the advantage of these applications is that they can offer you cheaper prices compared to a traditional management”, analyzes Elisabet Ruiz-Dotras, professor at the Faculty of Economics and Business at the Open University of Catalonia (UOC). “The disadvantage, as always occurs when filling in data onlineIt will be a more standard, less specialized service”, he considers.
During the 2022/23 income campaign, which began this Tuesday and will end on June 30, more than 22 million taxpayers are called to file the income statement. TaxDown, one of the best-known tax management platforms in Spain, expects to make some two million models this year, double the number last year.
the start up It was born in 2019 by three young people from Madrid, who realized that a niche exploited in other countries was here unexplored. “Growth has been exponential,” says Enrique García, CEO and co-founder of the company, by videoconference. The year it was launched, the firm only had six employees, made some 4,000 statements and had a turnover of around 15,000 euros. Now there are about 90 workers—growing to 150 on the occasion of the income campaign—and the forecast for the year is to reach 10 million in income.
“At first we focused a lot on simple statements,” Garcia explains. Now they have identified four blocks: the basic, the owners, the self-employed and investors. Depending on the profile and the services required, the cost ranges from 35 euros to 199. The company has also designed different tools, signed agreements with banks, insurers and fintech companies and is increasingly relying on artificial intelligence. “The technology is not mature enough to be left completely free, but it does help our tax advisers in their work,” he specified. The diversification has also been geographical. “Since last year we also launched the activity in Mexico, and we plan to continue expanding. We see that in Latin America the opportunity is especially great”, adds the manager.
Taxfix’s journey has been the opposite. It was created in Germany in 2016 and landed last year in Spain, in a mobile and desktop version. Also opera in Italy and France. The disembarkation was preceded by a market study and a survey, commissioned by the start upin which 48% of Spaniards said they were afraid of filing taxes due to possible errors and 41% said they were willing to spend money on filing the model.
The company has more than five million downloads combined in the markets where it operates and has achieved unicorn status – a valuation of more than 1 billion. The income statement service offered in Spain costs 39.99 euros. The taxpayer must create a user and answer a series of questions. The platform, which, like TaxDown, is a social partner of the Treasury — they have signed a collaboration agreement with the agency — connects with the Tax Agency to obtain the client’s tax data.
Stella Raventós Calvo, president of the Spanish Association of Tax Advisors (Aedaf), believes that in the future technology will gain weight in the field of tax advice and recognizes that the new platforms are a useful instrument, although she warns that they are not always the taxpayer’s best ally. “If you are a person who only has a salary or a pension, it can be a way to simplify things. But if there are more elements considered necessary, a dialogue between the taxpayer and the adviser ”, she specifies. “Depending a lot on the profile and the composition of the income. The more elements you have income, the more complicated the declaration is”.
José María Mollinedo, general secretary of the Finance Technicians (Gestha), also explains the configuration of the mass process gesture: “Mobile applications and agencies online they often offer quick answers to taxpayers like you might get from Internet search engines. But those answers are not specific to all the relevant facts in resolving a particular tax issue.”
Specialization
The British TaxScouts platform, founded in 2017 by three professionals from the technology sector, began operating in Spain in 2021, with particular attention to the self-employed segment. “The idea of TaxScouts was born from the complexity that filing represents, with the vision that it should be as easy as ordering a pizza”, compares Jaume Suñol, General manager of the firm in Spain. “We consider it key to develop a specific service for the self-employed, since they have an important weight in the Spanish economy and numerous tax obligations.”
The company offers self-employed workers three different plans —with different prices— depending on the requirements, which include everything from registering in the system to using a billing and accounting management platform. In line with the income statement service, it is 100% online —but does not have application— and its cost is fixed, at 69.90 euros, regardless of the complexity of the model. “Each client is assigned a personal tax advisor who manages their case from start to finish, advises them and presents their return,” explains Suñol. “It’s very easy to use and takes about 10 minutes for the customer to complete,” he adds. “In addition, it includes the response to possible notifications from the Treasury and insurance in the event of any possible incident.”
Ruiz-Dotras, from the Open University of Catalonia, foresees that more tax management platforms will appear in the future. “But if they are all the same it is difficult for them to survive. The idea is that they differentiate themselves ”, he considers. “Although the trend is going to be to do everything online, people ask for a personal service. Technology also has to advance.
Security
This Tuesday, the National Police warned of a massive fraud attempt in the income campaign. Via SMS, the cybercriminals had impersonated the identity of the Treasury and asked the taxpayer to click on a link to collect a “refund”. These cases are not isolated, since the combination of technology and sensitive data gives rise to an explosive cocktail with many negative externalities, which take the form of theft or information leaks. Juan Miguel Velasco, CEO of Aiuken Cybersecurity, warns that the management of personal data on some platforms, such as those that prepare the income statement, are not always secure. “It is very sensitive data. some application sometimes they handle the data in a very insecure way. Their identification and authentication systems are very weak, based only on username and password.”
Enrique García, CEO and co-founder of the TaxDown tax management platform, assures that the system used by the company is reliable and the security standards are very high. He explains that, as it is a collaborating entity of the Tax Agency, the application Access taxpayer information in the same way as the Treasury. “As far as the data is concerned, it is encrypted and access by the tax advisor is temporary,” he adds.
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