With the aim of adapting the calculation of the tax assessments to economic reality, the Spanish Royal Decree-Law 15/2020, of 21 April, on complementary urgent measures to support the economy and employment -enacted on 22 April 2020- grants an extraordinary option for changing the CIT prepayment calculation method for the taxpayers who were now bound to follow the method based on the results of the last fiscal year, earned in very different circumstances to those applying nowadays.
Those taxpayers will now be entitled to opt for the method that determines the CIT prepayment over the taxable income of the first three, nine or eleven months of the on-going tax year (hereinafter, the "Special CIT Prepayment Calculation Method"). This new tax measure will enter into force on 23 April 2020.
Generally, the Special CIT Prepayment Calculation Method is mandatory for taxpayers whose turnover exceeded 6 million euros in the 12 months prior to the date on which the tax year begins and optional for the rest of taxpayers within a deadline which, in the majority of cases, ends by the end of February every year.
However, given the harsh economic situation, the Royal Decree-Law 15/2020 has come to modify the form and terms to exercise the option for Special CIT Prepayment Calculation Method for taxpayers whose tax year had begun from 1 January 2020, according to the following conditions:
Taxpayers whose turnover in 2019 does not exceed 600,000 euros:
- They may exercise the option, until 20 May 2020, by filing the first CIT prepayment determined by application of the Special CIT Prepayment Calculation Method.
Taxpayers whose turnover does not exceed 6 million euros during the 12 months prior to the date on which the tax year began:
- They may exercise the option by filing the second CIT prepayment to be made within the first 20 calendar days of October 2020, determined by application of the Special CIT Prepayment Calculation Method.
- The first CIT prepayment made in the 20 calendar days of April 2020 will be deductible from the two remaining CIT prepayments made on account of the same tax year determined in accordance with the Special CIT Prepayment Calculation Method.
- The tax groups that apply the special tax consolidation regime will not be able to apply the extraordinary option for the Special CIT Prepayment Calculation Method.
The taxpayer who exercises the abovementioned extraordinary option will be linked to this modality of CIT prepayment calculation method, exclusively, with respect to the payments corresponding to the current tax year.
