The Government rectifies and eliminates the duty for the unemployed to current the earnings tax return | Economy | EUROtoday

Unemployed individuals who obtain advantages is not going to must file their earnings tax return subsequent yr, as deliberate. This obligation was authorized in 2024 and had been delayed till 2026, however is now dominated out by the decree regulation authorized this Tuesday within the Council of Ministers and printed this Wednesday within the Official State Gazette. As the Government explains within the textual content, the intention of the rule was to supply “an additional source of information”, however it considers its suppression essential because of the additional administrative burden it entails for the unemployed, amongst different causes. “It is not adequate,” says the Executive.

Among the obligations of employees and candidates and beneficiaries of unemployment advantages, the General Social Security Law indicated that of “presenting annually the declaration corresponding to the Personal Income Tax.” This requirement, frozen because it got here into power within the rules, is eradicated with this decree regulation and won’t apply.

The change, says the Government within the authorized textual content, “aims to prevent, through a norm specific to the social field, such as the General Social Security Law, a modification of the tax obligations of people who benefit from unemployment benefits.” “It is thus necessary to eliminate this obligation to submit an income tax return to beneficiaries of unemployment benefits, since its current scope does not only imply a formal obligation. This exceeds the intention of the rule, which was initially to provide an additional source of information to the entity managing unemployment benefits,” the Executive continues.

In one other part, the Government explains that “an obligation similar to the one that had previously been established in the non-contributory benefit of the minimum vital income was included for the first time in the scope of Social Security unemployment benefits with the idea of ​​aligning the obligations with those existing in the latter.”

“However,” continues the Executive, “since this reform came into force, it has been observed that this provision has not been adequate, and that there are reasons that justify its elimination already in 2026.” Among these causes, it signifies that the accountable declaration that was included into the regulation and the reinforcement of interoperability with the State Tax Administration Agency “have made it possible to dispense with this legal obligation to present the corresponding declaration.”

In addition, it additionally justifies the change in that “this obligation entails considerably increasing the administrative burdens against approximately two and a half million new people who access unemployment benefits, to which we must add what it would mean for the State Tax Administration Agency to have to manage this volume of additional declarations.”

The Government additionally considers that “it must be taken into account” that this new obligation to submit the declaration included “more than 2,500,000 taxpayers as new taxpayers obliged to declare personal income tax 2024.” And 75% of those filers receive unemployment earnings of lower than 5,400 euros. “Therefore, the extension of the obligation to submit personal income tax declaration to the beneficiaries of the unemployment benefit not only represents a formal obligation, but also implies that many of these taxpayers have the obligation to self-assess and pay a tax amount to which they would not be obliged in accordance with strictly tax regulations,” provides the decree regulation.

“All of the above justifies the need to eliminate it immediately,” concludes the textual content authorized by the Council of Ministers.