According to the latest statistics published by the Tax Agency on the status of the 2023 income refunds, around €9 billion has already been returned to 12,814,000 taxpayers. This equals 78.9 percent of the number of people who requested refunds and 66.6 percent of the amount.
This means that around three million haven’t yet received their overpaid taxes back.
This is mainly due to the fact that many more people requested refunds for the 2023 return. At the end of the campaign, 24,013,000 declarations had been submitted, which was 4.9 percent more than last year. Of these, 67 percent (16,229,000) had results which showed they were owed money back.
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Although a large part of the population has already received their money, this time last year more than 80 percent of the requests had been returned, while this year it’s slightly lower at 78.9 percent.
The delay is affecting three million citizens, which is half a million more than last year.
In addition to being due to the increase in declarations, the delay could be related to the so-called deficit game, with Spain trying to meet the objectives of the European Union regarding the country’s accounts, and returning the money later than normal.
The Spanish government has convinced Brussels not to open a case against them for excessive deficit. The reasons that Spain has given are that in 2023 its public deficit was 3.6 percent and that in 2020, at the height of the pandemic, it reached 10.1 percent – a reduction of almost seven points in three years. This trend will continue in 2024 and 2025, forecasts from both Spain and the EU suggest.
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According to sources from news site El Confidencial Digital the government has recorded the unpaid money as state income, in order to reduce the deficit.
The same sources also confirm that the Treasury focuses on paying the lowest amounts first and then waits longer to pay the higher amounts. This means that if you’re owed a lot back, you could be one of the three million still waiting.
The Treasury has a fairly long period in which it can return money – up to six months in total.
This is six months not from the presentation of each taxpayer’s declaration, but from the end of the campaign, which this year was July 1st. This means that they have up until December 31st to refund those that are owned many back.
So, in reality you could be waiting at least four more months before you see your money.
