The Spanish ministry of industry, tourism and commerce is considering a reduction of around 13% of the rate paid for the request of registering a trademark, a measure that will bring an annual saving of 2.7 million Euros to the users of these services. The minister also indicated that during the last year in Spain there has been a reduction from eight months to five and a half months in the average period for the concession of a trademark. The government has approved a set of measures for companies to facilitate access for the protection of their trademarks, electronic requests, renewal of trademarks and the streamlining of the payment system.
The Spanish Association of Tax Advisers (ACEFIGET) points out that because of the technical complexity and ensuing costs of the modifications the new norm requires, small and medium-sized enterprises (PYMES) are unable to fulfil the new fiscal obligations.
The tax advisers state that the “important” changes that came into force on 1st January 2008 with the approval of the new General Plan of Accounting and the obligations that this imposes in relation to the filing of annual accounts implies mainly for PYMES a “difficult adaptation” to these changes.
They state that these new demands are creating “huge costs” that most of PYMES cannot afford given the present economic crisis.
These new obligations, the fiscal advisers say, are an addition to the “excessive bureaucratic load” that PYMES have been confronting during the last few years.
The association also indicates in its letter, signed by the secretary of ASEFIGET Ricardo Perpiñán, “that the official tax return of the Company’s Tax published by the Spanish tax authorities, although having adapted mostly to the changes, is difficult or impossible to comply with without a previous study of all of the pages that compose it and particularly of its annexes”.
The fiscal advisers assure that this “required study” is not feasible in the “short term”. 30th May 2009 is the date of publication of the official form and 27th of July 2009 is the date on which the voluntary period for its submission finalizes.
The association, which has already expressed this concern to the director of the Tributary Agency, Maria Dolores Bustamante, has asked economic minister Mrs. Salgado for an extension of the voluntary term for the submission of the Company’s Tax for the year 2008 as well as the submission of the different annexes to the 31st of October 2009.