Recovery of excess VAT paid: a case study of Spain

Abstract

With a view to compliance with European directives and fiscal principles, Spain configured its legislation on value added tax (VAT) through Law 37/1992 of 28 December 1992 on Value Added Tax (Ley del Impuesto sobre el Valor Añadido, LIVA). However, questions have been raised about the adequacy of the system created to manage the application of this law as regards the recovery of excess VAT paid. Specifically, doubts have been expressed as to whether it preserves the pertinent European (particularly that of fiscal neutrality) in two particular scenarios (reimbursement of excess VAT paid once the right to deduction has expired, and requests for the refund of undue payments), analysis of which shall form the basis of this study.