Mothers and fathers who had a final decision or sentence against the return of maternity or paternity benefit may receive the return mediating a new request after the sentence of the Supreme Court of last October 3.
This has been determined by the legal services of the Ministry of Finance, based on the interpretation given to the Royal Decree last December that introduced the necessary legal change to comply with the ruling of the Supreme Court that declared maternity benefits exempt.
This measure has been communicated by the Acting Finance Minister, María Jesús Montero, to the representatives of the Association of Affected and Affected by the IRPF of Maternity and Paternity in a meeting held today. Montero ordered that a solution be sought when he became aware of the problems of this group.
In this way, the Government fulfills its commitment to correct a situation of injustice that affected a group of mothers who demanded the return of IRPF withholdings for maternity before the ruling of the Supreme Court. The Tax Agency estimates that the decision can benefit some 8,000 taxpayers.
Montero has ensured that no one would understand that precisely the mothers who first claimed that right will now be excluded from the group of beneficiaries.
The return process
After the Supreme Court ruled on October 3, 2018 that maternity benefits are exempt from income tax, the Ministry of Finance launched last December a return process of income tax for the exercises not prescribed (2014-2018).
The Government considered that this sentence should also benefit paternity leave and extended the reimbursement to public employees who paid the IRPF for the maternity and paternity leave of the social security mutuals.
For the return, the Tax agency launched a simple and agile process that has allowed to return to date 960 million euros.
However, interpretative doubts arose about whether the return process could benefit those taxpayers who had claimed the refund before the Supreme Court ruling and had received an unfavorable decision or ruling.
The legal services of the Ministry of Finance have ruled that this group is also entitled to reimbursement. The measure is possible because the Royal Decree of December produced effects from its entry into force, but also for previous years not prescribed, so it is understood enabled the right to receive the return of mothers and fathers who had resolutions and firm judgments against. The measure also extends to public employees who receive maternity and paternity leave through social security mutuals.
When this extension of the beneficiaries to the non-prescribed periods is circumscribed, it will affect cases of benefits received in the years 2014 and following, but also to those previous years in which eventual appeals lodged by the taxpayers would have interrupted the prescription as long as so that the four years of prescription that marks the General Tax Law.
Therefore, in both cases the right to return is extended, although the procedure for the taxpayer is different. For the years 2014 to 2017, mothers and fathers must submit a refund request through the same electronic form enabled by the Tax Agency that had been using applicants since last December.
The deadline for requesting the return of the IRPF of the maternity benefit for the year 2014 ends on July 1, 2019, when the four years marked by the legislation are met.
For the assumptions of previous years not prescribed, the formula will be that of an ordinary application in which the applicant provides his name, surnames and NIF, together with the year of receipt of the benefit and the IBAN number of a bank account from which be a holder That application will submit it, either by electronic record, or in any record of the Administration.
All those mothers and fathers for whom the right to return is now extended and who had already submitted the application after the decision of the Supreme Court, will not need to resubmit it now, given that the same request will be processed.
In the event that this second request has been resolved in a negative sense, the interested party must send a letter to the Tax Agency showing their opposition to that resolution and the Administration will act by returning it.
With the solution provided by the Ministry of Finance, any possible discrimination disappears. In other words, all mothers and fathers who received the benefit as of 2014 will be entitled to a refund irrespective of whether or not they submitted a claim prior to sentencing.
In addition, in some cases, the fact of having submitted a prior request can be an advantage insofar as, if the prescription was stopped, it is now possible to collect the benefit of exercises prior to 2014.
Rate of returns
The measure communicated today is in addition to the process initiated by the Government in December 2018 for the return of maternity and paternity benefits following the ruling of the High Court.
Thanks to the system set up by the Tax Agency, more than 734,000 mothers and fathers had received until the past June 11 the return of income tax deductions for the period 2014-2017.
In particular, the sum of the amounts reimbursed to date (repayment plus interest) exceeds 960 million euros. Thus, taxpayers entitled to refund have received 1,309 euros on average. Mothers have received an average of 2,066 euros and parents 483 euros.