When it comes to tax formalities, many people fear that a tangle of bureaucracy will make it impossible to complete them. Nothing could be further from the truth. Nowadays, carrying out tax operations is much simpler thanks to their adaptation to the online world. Do you want to know how the digital signature and the Tax Agency are related?
It is no longer necessary to waste practically a full day to comply with tax obligations. We can do it from home, from work, while traveling on public transport and in countless other situations. All this thanks to the electronic administration and the work of private entities such as Viafirma, which offers very useful tools in this aspect.
In this article we will talk about the options that the Tax Agency of the Government of Spain offers us from the digital signature point of view, as well as about the state digitalization panorama and Viafirma’s role in all of this.
Electronic administration in Spain
The use of digital signatures in tax agency procedures is part of the aforementioned electronic administration, aimed at providing a significant degree of mobility when carrying out certain operations.
The digitization of the Tax Agency’s procedures has contributed, among other actions, to Spain’s privileged position in terms of the degree of development of its electronic administration.
In fact, according to the report Retos de la Administración Electrónica en la Unión Europea: más allá de 2020, carried out by the Ilustre Colegio Oficial de Gestores Administrativos de Madrid (Icogam), Spain is in fourth position within the countries of the European Union, behind Finland, Estonia and Denmark.
This same study raises as main challenges to advance in open government, interoperability, combat the digital divide and avoid dehumanization in dealing with citizens, among others. It also highlights the fact of making public workers as dynamizers and accelerators to achieve the European Digital Single Market.
Methods of access and procedures of the Internal Revenue Service
The Tax Agency offers private citizens and companies several ways to access its services online, saving us the inconvenience of long waits and travel to their own offices.
Among the procedures that can be carried out, we highlight:
- Access to fiscal data.
- Presentation of personal income tax returns.
- Access to notifications.
- Making payments.
- Request for certifications.
- Informative statements.
- Quarterly and monthly self-assessments.
- Draft of the Income Tax Return.
- Annual income tax return.
- Request for tax certifications.
- Request for early payment due to different family conditions.
- Please ask for an appointment.
- Obtain the tax return through the Personal Income WEB system.
- Filing the Personal Income Tax return.
The following is a breakdown of these identification methods.
Digital certificate or electronic ID
Whether you have a digital certificate or electronic ID (which includes an electronic certificate) or identity verification methods, the procedures that can be accessed on the Tax Agency’s portal are wide and varied.
Cl@ve PIN
This identification method consists of a password chosen by the user and a PIN number sent to the phone by SMS. In order to use the Cl@ve PIN, prior registration is required.
Reference number
This is activated for the Income Tax campaigns. To get it, you must go to box 475 of the tax return. The date of validity or issuance of the DNI or the NIE support number will also be requested.
Others
Although these are the main ways to access the electronic procedures proposed by the Tax Agency, we must also highlight others such as identification through a certain box on the tax return or the use of Secure Verification Code (CSV) to view or download some specific files.
Viafirma to complete the digital signature procedures of the Tax Agency
Viafirma’s solutions provide a great advantage when carrying out procedures with the tax authorities, providing efficiency and security to them. Here we must mention Viafirma Fortress, which allows the storage and management of digital certificates in the cloud.
Viafirma strictly complies with our universal signature principle. That is to say, it allows the identification and signature of documents from any device, regardless of the model or operating system it works with.
Moreover, as they are stored in the cloud, the certificates can be used regardless of the computer, mobile or tablet that we are using, adding an important contribution to mobility.
But that is not all. It is worth highlighting the strong security measures that this solution incorporates, especially when we are talking about information as sensitive as tax information.
In this sense, besides fully complying with the current legislation, such as the eIDAS Regulation, Viafirma provides a strong identity authentication, requiring identification by means of at least two factors. These can be classified as follows:
- Something the user knows: password.
- Something held by the user: key card, SMS token or OTP token.
- Something that the user does or is the user himself: biometric factors.
The way we relate to the Tax Agency has changed a lot with the advent of the Internet and new technologies. Gone are the days when to make the tax return you had to bury yourself in a pile of papers with the simple help of a calculator and then have to wait patiently for your turn at the window.
Now everything can be done from the comfort of your home at the click of a button. The Spanish Administration has put a lot of effort into achieving this situation, with excellent results.
In addition, from Viafirma we wanted to contribute, and we continue to do so, in this process of digital tax transformation, developing means for the identification and signature of procedures to be even more agile and secure. And, of course, we will be here to tell you all the news about it.