The requirements and amounts of direct aid for the self-employed and SMEs are specified.
Until 31 December 2021 you will be able to apply for direct aid for your business, but…
Are you entitled to them?
What are the requirements?
How much money will you be given?
Can you apply for them in all the Autonomous Communities in which you operate?
What if it belongs to a group of companies or a community of property?
The Official State Gazette has published Order HAC/348/2021, of 12 April, detailing the criteria for the allocation of direct aid to the self-employed and companies regulated in Title I of Royal Decree-Law 5/2021, of 12 March, on extraordinary measures to support business solvency.
Title I of the aforementioned Royal Decree-Law created a Covid line to support the self-employed and companies by providing direct aid for the payment of fixed costs, for example, those related to energy supply and changes in consumption patterns and power demand, payment to suppliers, reduction of debts arising from economic activity, provided that these obligations have been generated between 1 March 2020 and 31 May 2021 and come from contracts prior to 13 March of this year.
The line has a total budget of 7 billion euros and is divided into two compartments.
5 billion for all the Autonomous Communities, except the Balearic and Canary Islands, and for the cities of Ceuta and Melilla; and
2 billion for the Autonomous Communities of the Balearic and Canary Islands.
This aid will in any case be subject to a commitment by the companies to remain in business and not to distribute dividends, in order to ensure that it actually leads to a strengthening of solvency and increased production and employment capacity in the context of the economic recovery brought about by the Covid pandemic.
Order HAC/348/2021 of 12 April, in force from the day of its publication in the BOE, 13 April, specifies the issues necessary for the application of the eligibility requirements for recipients and the setting of the amount.
BENEFICIARIES
Entrepreneurs, Professionals and SMEs
The addressees are considered to be entrepreneurs or professionals and entities which:
They carry out an activity included in any of the codes of the National Classification of Economic Activities -CNAE 09- and continue to carry it out at the time of the application.
Order HAC/348/2021 of 12 April:
In the case of groups, either the parent entity or any of the controlled entities must carry out and continue to carry out at least one of the activities listed in the CNAE codes as the main activity.
Have an annual turnover declared or verified by the Administration, in the Value Added Tax or equivalent indirect tax in 2020 with a drop of more than 30% compared to 2019.
Order HAC/348/2021 of 12 April:
When the aid applicant has its tax domicile in the cities of Ceuta or Melilla or carries out only non-taxable or exempt transactions that do not require the submission of periodic VAT self-assessments (Articles 20 and 26 of Law 37/1992, of 28 December, on Value Added Tax) and does not apply the objective assessment system for Personal Income Tax in 2019 and 2020, the volume of transactions in 2019 and 2020 will be understood to constitute it:
a) For personal income taxpayers, information on the total taxable income from their economic activity included in their tax return in 2019, as well as the sum of the taxable income from their economic activity included in their self-assessment of instalments corresponding to 2020.
b) For taxpayers of Corporate Income Tax or Non-Resident Income Tax with permanent establishment, the information on the previous taxable base declared in the last instalment payment of the years 2019 and 2020 respectively in the event that said instalment payments are calculated in accordance with the provisions of article 40.3 of Law 27/2014, of 27 November, on Corporate Income Tax.
Apply the objective estimation regime in the Personal Income Tax (Impuesto sobre la Renta de las Personas Físicas).
Order HAC/348/2021 of 12 April:
The direct beneficiary of the aid when the IRPF income attribution system is applied will be the applicant entity and not its partners, co-owners, heirs or participants.
Consolidated Groups
In the case of consolidated groups that pay corporate income tax under the consolidated taxation system, for the purposes of compliance with the eligibility and transfer requirements, the recipient shall be understood to be the aforementioned group as a single taxpayer, and not each of the entities that comprise it, whereby the volume of transactions to be considered for determining the fall in activity shall be the result of adding up all the volumes of transactions of the entities that make up the group.
Order HAC/348/2021 of 12 April:
The application shall be submitted by the company representing the group and shall include all entities that were part of the group in 2020.
Entities that have been part of a group in 2019, but not in 2020, will be considered as independent and may apply for grants provided they meet the requirements on a case-by-case basis.
Exclusions
Under no circumstances will those entrepreneurs or professionals, entities and consolidated groups that have declared a negative net result for the economic activities in which they have applied the direct estimation method for their determination or, where applicable, the taxable base for Corporate Income Tax or Non-Resident Income Tax, prior to the application of the reserve for capitalisation and compensation of negative taxable bases, will be considered as recipients.
AMOUNT OF AID
The maximum aid to be granted will be:
a) 3,000 euros in the case of entrepreneurs or professionals who apply the objective assessment scheme for personal income tax, regardless of whether they carry out other activities under the direct assessment scheme, even if they have renounced the objective assessment scheme for 2021.
Order HAC/348/2021 of 12 April:
Where the beneficiary has applied the objective assessment scheme in 2019 or 2020, the eligibility requirement of a fall of more than 30% in Value Added Tax or equivalent indirect taxation in 2020 compared to 2019 does not need to be met.
(b) For those entrepreneurs and professionals whose annual turnover declared or verified by the administration for value added tax or equivalent indirect taxation has fallen by more than 30 % in 2020 compared to 2019, the maximum support to be granted shall be
40% of the drop in the volume of operations in 2020 with respect to 2019 that exceeds 30%, in the case of entrepreneurs or professionals who apply the direct estimation regime in Personal Income Tax, as well as entities and permanent establishments that have a maximum of 10 employees.
Orden HAC/348/2021, de 12 de abril:
When the entrepreneur or professional applicant for aid carries out a retail trade activity whose income from economic activities is determined by means of the direct estimation system in the Personal Income Tax, applying for this activity the special system of the surcharge of equivalence in the Value Added Tax or equivalent tax, it shall be understood that their volume of operations in the financial year 2019 shall be the total taxable income from their retail economic activity included in their personal income tax return for 2019, while their volume of operations in the financial year 2020 shall be the sum of the taxable income included in their self-assessments of instalment payments for the financial year 2020.
20% of the amount of the drop in turnover in 2020 compared to 2019 that exceeds 30%, in the case of entities and entrepreneurs or professionals and permanent establishments with more than 10 employees.
Order HAC/348/2021 of 12 April:
The number of employees shall be calculated taking into account the average number in 2020 of recipients of earned income reported in the monthly or quarterly withholding and tax returns (form 111).
SUBMISSION OF APPLICATIONS: IN ALL OR IN ONE AUTONOMOUS COMMUNITY?
It will be possible to apply to calls for applications made by different Autonomous Communities and the Cities of Ceuta and Melilla for the allocation of direct aid, except in the case of entrepreneurs, professionals or entities:
-With a trading volume in 2020 of less than or equal to EUR 10 million and
-Do not apply the group regime for corporate income tax purposes.
These may only apply to the call for applications made by the Autonomous Community or, where appropriate, the Cities of Ceuta and Melilla, in which their tax domicile is located.
The rest of the groups and entrepreneurs, professionals or entities with a volume of operations in 2020 of more than 10 million euros that carry out their economic activity in more than one autonomous territory or in more than one Autonomous City, may participate in the calls made in all the territories.
Order HAC/348/2021 of 12 April:
The distribution of the fall in the volume of operations between the territories in which the applicants for aid operate will be made on the basis of the remuneration for personal work recorded in the annual summary information return of withholdings and payments on account, which will be attributed to each territory on the basis of the residence of the recipients.
FORAL TERRITORIES
Where provincial legislation is applicable, the references made in Title I of Royal Decree-Law 5/2021 to tax concepts regulated by the State shall be understood to be made to the equivalent concepts in provincial legislation.
In particular, the provisions of Article 3(2)(a) of Royal Decree-Law 5/2021 will apply to applicants for the regulated aid who apply the simplified Value Added Tax regime in the Autonomous Community, irrespective of the tax regime they apply for Personal Income Tax.