The return of the IRPF retained for maternity leave could take "up to a year"

The return of the IRPF retained for maternity leave could take "up to a year"

The Treasury studies whether it enables a complaints mechanism to streamline the process to more than one million potential applicants

  Given the possible avalanche of claims by the recent ruling of the Supreme Court declaring the maternity benefit exempt from income tax, the Ministry of Finance is studying to enable a special mechanism to do so. At stake, more than 1,000 million euros that will be returned to more than one million families who during the last years were taxed for this assistance to motherhood as required by the tax authorities in their tax returns.

How is this claim made?

At this time, the affected women can claim through a standard procedure through the website of the Tax Agency . You have to fill out the document, provide the documentation -the ruling of the Supreme Court- and request that the Tax Agency review our declaration. Thus, the taxpayers who included the maternity benefit in their IPRF declarations for the years 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2017 (the previous ones have prescribed), should submit a request for rectification of self-settlement and refund of undue income. To do this, they must locate the amount of the benefit they have received in the fiscal data sent by the Treasury and fill in the form by reference number, PIN code or electronic ID.

With this procedure it is possible that many of the claims remain on the road due to ignorance or because those affected have no time or desire to carry it out. In addition, it is possible that the Tax Agency itself will collapse before the avalanche of requests . «A more agile procedure would make the returns to be charged in a few months, instead of reaching the year», explains Antonio Paredes, tax expert of the Tax Technicians (Gestha).

From the Tax Agency ensure that "in the coming days" will inform on how to perform this procedure , it is understood that more easily than the current. This is what consumers organizers like Facua also ask for. His spokesman, Rubén Sánchez, asks the Government to call on all workers to claim them and collect their retention.

They also request that the claim be a "simple procedure" for the online channels, that is prominently visible on the web or even "that there is a specific website for it". The ideal, in his opinion, is that there was a way for women to collect the refund without having to claim, although "we do not believe that happens."

What is the deadline to claim?
The request can be requested before four years have elapsed since the deadline for submission of the claimed claim. That is, for the workers who received the maternity benefit in 2014, the period ends on June 30, 2019, which is the day that will be four years since the income for the year 2014 was presented.

For their part, UGT have asked on Monday to the Minister of Finance to return ex officio the income tax withholding of maternity benefits. "We would like the Treasury not to pass now a calvary to the women and men who were deducted from the IRPF," said the general secretary of UGT, José María Álvarez.