The Tax Administration (AEAT) is interpreting that The payments that families make in concerted schools cannot be considered as donations and therefore are not deductible in the income statement.
This is explained by Rubén Gimeno, director of the Studies Service of the Registry of Fiscal Advisors Economists (REAF) at the press conference held this morning to present his recommendations for the 2018 Income.
In addition, he has indicated that the AEAT is reviewing the statements of the last four years (which have not yet been prescribed) and preparing new settlements in which these deductions are suppressed.
Law 35/2006, of November 28, on the Income Tax for Individuals, allows the deduction of 75% of the first 150 euros donated to non-profit entities and 30% from that amount.
Taking into account this deduction, parents with children in concerted schools include the so-called 'donations' by the centers, in their income statements, but the Treasury notes that they are not.
Reasons of the Tax Agency
The AEAT has already begun to request the refunds of the amounts deducted by the parents in their Income statement. In fact, the Treasury already claims a taxpayer of Asturias, the return of 337.50 euros that had been deducted for donations to the school of their children.
The Tax Agency justifies your request because the deliveries made by the students' parents "They have direct cause in the education services received and, little doubt, that if this condition did not occur, such deliveries would not exist".
This case, which the representative of the Fiscal Advisors Economist Registry has set as an example, is clearly not a donation, but a benefit for educational services, according to the AEAT:
"The monthly periodic nature of the payments together with the cessation at the moment when the students finish their studies and the fixed amount depending on the number of children who are students of the center allow us to reject the existence of a donation."
An unlawful practice
A month ago we already reported that the Spanish Confederation of Associations of fathers and mothers of students (CEAPA) had submitted a report on the breach of many schools agreed to the Organic Law of the Right to Education, forcing families to pay fees excessive. This education is subsidized by the State, and must be free.
The Minister of Education, Isabel Celaá, warned then that the Government was going to analyze any collection of fees that are irregular, since the schools are funded "strictly" by the Administration.
In Babies and more The fees of schools arranged in the Government's focusBut it was not the first time that the focus was placed on those 'voluntary fees' charged by schools as mandatory. Two reports made by specialized private consultants and presented at the Madrid Assembly, showed that most schools arranged this Autonomous Community they require parents a mandatory fixed payment in an allegedly irregular way.
Our partner Lola Rovati already pointed out that this practice is not new and that it has been going on all over Spain for years. There are concerted schools that come to profit with average fees of 148 euros per month, without duly informing of their non-mandatory nature, contravening the organic law of the right to education.
In Babies and moreCollected schools: most charge as mandatory fees that are voluntaryNow, the measures taken by the Treasury to indicate these 'donations' poorly deducted, also have their counterpart, because it means that You could also review the company declarations of the companies that manage the schools for the income received as a donation, as explained by Rubén Gimeno, from REAF.
We hope that this varapalo of the Treasury for the economy of the families will serve at least to end a non-legal practice, as the Government points out, because the education of the concerted schools is fully subsidized by the State and therefore these centers cannot charge fees mandatory for the regular classes your students receive.
In addition, those quotas that can become axfisiar to parents without resources, have to be explained as voluntary, something that is not usually made clear.
In fact, a friend went to the address of the concerted religious center where her daughter came to see if they could reduce her monthly fee because she could not cope with it because of economic problems, and they replied that if she could not afford it, change the school girl . At no time was it explained that she was voluntary and, of course, she was not obliged to pay anything.
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