Tax treatment is one of the issues that most concerns all kinds of digital users. So that to prevent any slip with the property can harm us in our tax obligations. Faced with this scenario that requires the interest of readers, it is very useful to know how ecommerce or electronic commerce is taxed.
We are all interested in knowing if it has some tax advantages compared to the more traditional or conventional business models. Because of the benefits obtained from the purchases of services, products or items offered to customers, a part of them will go to the tax payment. But at this time, some entrepreneurs do not know very well what the tax differences of these business operations are.
To try that from now on we do not have problems with the Treasury, we are going to show you what the real taxation of businesses or online stores is like. Because there are substantial differences that you will need to know to correctly carry out your personal accounts every year. And what is more important, that you do not have problems from now on with the country's tax authorities.
Finance: taxation of digital commerce
The taxation of digital commerce or ecommerce has been imposed in recent years with an infinity of professional projects of these characteristics. One of the most relevant taxes in any kind of business activity, physical or online, is VAT (Value Added Tax). Well yeah the item is sold in Spain, Spanish VAT will be applied. This will be about 7% depending on each case that is accounted for in a normal way.
While on the other hand, if the sale is to an individual, VAT is applied according to the rate that governs the country from which it sells. This is one of the main reasons why, in order to avoid variations in your payment, from 2021 European regulations require you to change the rules. That is, the online platforms themselves will be responsible for collecting this tax and then delivering it to the estates of the corresponding countries. It will be a substantial change with which those responsible for the shops or virtual stores will have to deal with.
On the other hand, another aspect that deserves to be valued in the tax treatment by Internet business projects is that which has to do with the obligations of their entrepreneurs. In this sense, the Treasury is focusing on goods sold for a price higher than that obtained. Namely, when a profit is acquired from its sale. For this reason, it is recommended to keep documents that not only prove ownership of the property and also proof of the transaction in which to see the original price (such as a screenshot of the closing of the agreement).
VAT (value added tax) is a tax burden that falls on the consumer, and you will be in charge of collecting it and then giving it to the Treasury. Therefore, you always have to apply VAT to your products and services, which in Spain is currently 19%, regardless of whether the client is a professional or a final consumer.
But when you are selling a digital product and the buyer is not in Spain, you will have to apply the VAT that is in force in the buyer's country and periodically pay the tax collected in the corresponding administration. In this sense, there may be substantial differences between one and other cases within the digital sector.
Basic requirements for invoicing in Internet commerce
The main legal requirements that every business of Internet sales It must meet a series of legal requirements that we expose you below:
- Invoices must be issued with the VAT rate that corresponds to the product, item or service that you sell to customers or users.
- The legal notice and purchase conditions must be identified on the e-commerce web pages.
- The pages must include the name of the owner, email, address and CIF or NIF.
While on the other hand, and not of less importance, it is relative to the fact that it must also comply with everything established by the following rules that we aim at this time:
LSSICE - Law of Services of the Information Society and Electronic Commerce in Spain
LOPD - Data Protection Law
GDPR - General Data Protection Regulation
LOCM - Retail Trade Regulation Law
LCGC - Law of General Contracting Conditions
Control by the tax authorities
Do not think that because you are facing an Internet sector you will be able to escape your tax obligations. Simply because this is not in this way, as you may be picturing at the moment. If not, on the contrary, the Treasury has intensified its activities of supervision of the digital economy for a couple of years.
In any case, and despite the fact that there is still a long way to go for the control to be fully effective, the intention is that the control over the shops or electronic stores is total in a rather short period of time.
In any case, for the calculation of benefits, the rules of Personal Income Tax or Corporation Tax will be applied. Through the following actions that we expose you below:
If you carry out any economic activity of these characteristics, you must register in the tax census with form 036.
The activity to be carried out must be framed in an IAE heading within those regulated in Royal Legislative Decree 1175/1990. In other words, it will be different if you dedicate yourself to commercializing products or services derived from new technologies or linked to the world of culture or education. In this sense, it is the only difference that you will notice to carry out its correct taxation.
While on the other hand, you cannot forget that the IAE section for discharge is regardless of the sales channel used. That is, both for physical channels and those of an online nature. To the extent that the factor on which your tax treatment will depend is the one that ultimately has to do with the true nature of the economic activity, the products or services that are marketed through your professional project in the channels. of new technologies, as in the specific case of the Internet.
When should we issue invoices from the online business?
Another aspect that we must worry about in this kind of economic activity is the issuance of invoices. And that in the end are those that will be reflected in the tax bodies and that will affect the payment of the taxes that we must contribute to the Treasury from now on. In this sense, it can be said that the obligation to issue an invoice is generated in the following operations that we are going to explain below:
- When the recipient is an entrepreneur or professional acting as such.
- When the recipient demands it for any kind of motive or reason.
- In exports of goods exempt from VAT. Here there is an exception to duty free shops.
- When the deliveries of goods are destined for another member state of the EU VAT exempt.
In any of the cases, you need to know that the payment of this tax must be reflected every quarter if you are self-employed or self-employed. Because any breach it will have negative effects on your personal and professional interests. As with physical professional activities. That is, the most traditional or conventional.
Where you can have serious penalties from the tax authorities of the country. Both with regard to defaults and the delays in which they are formalized and in this sense completely the same as in physical businesses. With hardly any differences in both management models.
Impact on online business investments
In any case, the best way to save with our digital investments remains prudence and not to do so irrationally and against the logic of the markets. To do this, before investing our money in a project of these characteristics, we must observe the behavior of the business in this sector, what are its future prospects and verify the type of news that affects its evolution so that it can provide us from of those precise moments.
It is precisely then, and once all this information has been assimilated, when we have an approximate idea of the trend that may take in all our investments in the digital sector. You will be in a position to take positions in any of the investment products analyzed. And, surely this information gathering work will notably help users to make their savings more significant and pronounced through carrying out safer and more profitable projects in the online company. With what the benefits will be higher in all the periods of permanence.