On April 9, 2025, the new art. 120 of the Tax Code will come into force, which contains many new obligations.
It is worth remembering that individuals, legal entities, public and private, for-profit or non-profit, and their managers are obliged to register in the Unified Tax Registry of the Tax Administration before starting activities. Although these clash with some specific regulations that make it compulsory to register once one starts to update taxable events, the obligation to register is before starting activities.
Among the important things that are now regulated, we have:
- Verification by state entities
- Prior verification: State entities must verify that applicants for operating permits or licenses are registered as Value Added Taxpayers before granting such permits.
- Updating and ratification of data
- Annual update: taxpayers must update or ratify their registration details at least once a year, within the month of their birth or incorporation as a legal entity.
- Modification of data: any modification of the registration data must be communicated to the Tax Administration within 30 days of its occurrence.
- The data that must appear in this registry are:
- Full name and surname of the individual.
- Name or company name of the legal entity.
- Name of the taxpayers mentioned in 22 of this Code.
- It is worth noting that 22 does not refer to taxpayers but to special situations such as co-ownership, joint ventures, trusts, etc.
- Trade name, if any.
- Full names and surnames of the legal representative of the legal entity or of the taxpayers mentioned in 22 of this Code and of the people who, according to the document of incorporation or its amendments, are administrators, managers or agents of said people, and a copy of the document accrediting the representation, duly registered in the corresponding registers, where appropriate.
- Full names and surnames, company name or corporate name of the shareholders or partners of the legal entity and their percentage of participation in the capital of the latter, when applicable, through the means made available for this purpose by the Tax Administration.
- Fiscal address.
- Main and secondary economic activity.
- Date of commencement of activities.
- Registration for each of the taxes to which it is subject.
- In the case of a foreign legal entity, it must be specified whether it is acting as an agency, branch, or any other form of operation.
- Tax Identification Number of the accountant, when they are obliged to keep full accounts.
- Obligation to use the NIT
The obligation to use the tax identification number (NIT) in all civil, commercial, labor-management, financial transactions, notarial, administrative and judicial dealings is incorporated, and it must be stated in all actions carried out before the Tax Administration, on invoices or any other document issued in accordance with tax laws.
It is still not clear if the obligation also applies to purchases, given that when buying something, one is not always acting as a taxpayer, as the end consumer is not a taxpayer for VAT purposes. This issue is still pending clarification, although we know that the criterion expressed by the SAT (Tax Administration Superintendence) is that invoices should always be requested, when buying, with NIT (Taxpayer Identification Number).
- Cessation of activities
- Temporary or permanent cessation: Taxpayers must give notice of their activities’ temporary or permanent cessation within 30 days after the expiration of the last corresponding tax return.
- Suspension of registration: The Tax Administration may suspend registration ex officio if the registration information is inconsistent or false and when taxpayers consecutively file twelve (12) or more returns with a zero value (Q 0.00) in the boxes corresponding to income and expenses, without it being possible to determine the omission of income corresponding to the electronic invoices issued.
- Additional obligations
- Email address and georeferencing: Taxpayers must provide an email address and the georeferencing of their operations centers.
- Tax Identification Number (NIT): The NIT must be used in all civil, commercial, labor, financial transactions, notarial, administrative, and judicial proceedings.
- Coordination with registration entities
- Provision of information: The bodies responsible for the registration of individuals and legal entities must provide the Tax Administration with all the necessary information electronically and in real-time.
- Administrative procedures: The Tax Administration must establish procedures for the allocation of the NIT and simultaneous registration in the corresponding registers.