New technologies have changed the way we interact with administrations. Paper procedures are being displaced by electronic processing, and one of the steps that we can already do is pay taxes online. In this post, we explain how to do it.
There are many tributes that you can submit online and pay from your computer or mobile. From the circulation tax of your car to the IBI of your apartment, the income statement or the quarterly VAT if you are self-employed or have a company. You will also have to pay a tax if you buy a home (the Property Transfer Tax) or receive an inheritance (Inheritance and Gift Tax). All of them are examples of taxes that, in some cases, you will pay to your city council, in others to the Treasury of your autonomous community, and in a third case, to the State Treasury.
Pay taxes from your mobile or at an ATM
An alternative to paying your taxes is to do it directly from a Banco Santander ATM or through the Santander App itself. If you are a bank customer, and you still do not have the application, download it, because among the steps it allows you to do is the payment of taxes.
- Enter the application and access the tab “Receipts and taxes.”
- From this menu, choose the payment you want to make (receipts or taxes). You can enter the receipt data manually or scan the receipt using your mobile camera.
- Follow the instructions in the app and complete the payment in a few minutes.
The procedure for paying taxes through a Santander ATM is similar. You will only have to use your card at the ATM, select from the menu the option “Surcharges, Payments and others”, and within this, “Payment of taxes and fees”. Again, you can choose between entering the receipt data manually (issuing entity, reference, identification, and amount), or scanning the barcode that appears on it by bringing it closer to the ATM reader. If you are satisfied with the data, confirm the operation by clicking on “Yes”, and withdrawing the receipt at the end.
Pay taxes from the web
You can also make the payment of your tax receipts from the web.
- Access your private account with your ID and password.
- Within the Accounts and Cards menu, access Payments.
- In the Payments and Receipts section, click Access in Taxes.
- Choose the account with which you want to pay and then enter the code of the issuing entity and the rest of the data.
If you have a company you can also make payments of receipts and taxes from the Santander Companies App. Access with your group, username, and password and select from the menu (3 horizontal bars in the upper right part) «Payments» / «Payment of receipts».
You can also do it from Online Business Banking by accessing with the same passwords and selecting “Payments and collections” / “Other payments” / “Online payments” from the top menu.
Advantages of paying taxes online
Speed, comfort, simplicity, security, or cost savings are some of the advantages of paying your taxes online. On the one hand, you avoid queues at the window or having to print a lot of paper. Nor will you need to have to travel to the city center to carry out this management, which you can now do from the sofa at home. In addition, you can forget about being aware of the administrations’ schedules, since you can file your taxes at any time (within the established deadline, of course), 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. And finally, the telematic route is secure, because both the access as a user and the payment gateways comply with security protocols.
The process, step by step
So how do you pay taxes online? It is not a complex process. You just have to follow the instructions that appear on the corresponding website, which usually have a “help” button in case you need any clarification.
In summary, the process to pay taxes online goes through:
1. Know which is the administration that charges each tax
Once you know which administration you should go to (local, regional or state), enter their website, and from there access their electronic headquarters, through which you can carry out various online procedures, including paying your taxes.
2. To enter the electronic office, you will have to authenticate yourself
This means that you will have to use a method that guarantees that it is you who is doing the management and that no one is trying to impersonate your identity. You can do so using the electronic DNI or an accepted electronic certificate, such as those issued by the National Currency and Stamp Factory or Camerfirma. Some administrations, such as the Tax Agency, allow you to authenticate using a third way, the so-called Cl @ ve Pin, which combines data from your identity card and a code sent to your mobile number.
3. Select the tax you want to pay
Once registered in the administration’s electronic office, you must access the tax you wish to pay, and fill in the corresponding form. When it is time to pay, the system will open a secure payment gateway through which you will make the electronic payment of the tribute. Normally you can pay by a card or by debiting an account, but always through a collaborating entity that is part of the system (practically all banks and savings banks that operate in Spain, including Banco Santander).
To complete the processing, the collaborating bank that has managed the collection will generate an NRC (Complete Reference Number) , which will identify the tax revenue made and which will be necessary for the administration to complete the procedure.
Where to see the NRC code if you are a Santander customer?
To consult the NRC, go to the bank’s website with your identity document and access code. We see it in two simple steps:
- In the upper menu click on “Accounts and cards” / “Income Tax”
- In Income IRPF click on “Payments / direct debits”. Then choose the charge account and click “Accept”.
How to pay municipal taxes
The above is the most common process when we want to pay taxes from the State Treasury, such as the income tax return or the quarterly VAT return. To pay municipal taxes that you have not domiciled in your bankLike the IBI receipt or the road tax, the process is quite similar, although it varies slightly from town hall to town hall. Basically, you will have to authenticate yourself in the electronic headquarters of the local administration (with a certificate, electronic ID or username, and password), and enter the data of the receipt that your municipality will have sent you. Then, the payment will begin through the secure gateway. In some cases, you can do it with a credit card, and in others, you will need to have a bank account in one of the collaborating financial institutions.
As you may have seen, paying taxes online is a safe and simple process. You just have to follow the steps that the administration and your bank mark as necessary.