Spain: 2025 Tax Control Plan Guidelines – AEAT’s Transfer Pricing Priorities

The Spanish Tax Agency (AEAT) has recently published in the Official State Gazette (BOE) its main guidelines for tax supervision in 2025, identifying sectors, transactions, and activities that will be prioritized for review and investigation.

One of the most notable points is the increased focus on Transfer Pricing, which remains a priority area. With a global strategy based on cross-analysis of all available data sources (the so-called 360º approach to transfer pricing), the Plan reinforces and expands on the supervisory measures implemented in previous years.

The main lines of action for 2025 include:

1. Verification of Transfer Pricing Documentation and Reporting Obligations

There will be greater scrutiny of compliance with reporting obligations (Form 232) and transfer pricing documentation, with special attention to substantive aspects:

• Functional, asset, and risk analysis.
• Proper selection of valuation methods.
• Account segmentation as a verification tool.

Strict compliance with deadlines will be required, and taxpayers are reminded that documentation must be available after the voluntary filing deadline for the Corporate Income Tax return. The AEAT plans to carry out faster and more targeted checks, along with informational return review campaigns.

2. Automated Risk Analysis System

The AEAT will continue to implement automated systems for risk analysis, interrelating all available information on related-party transactions. Effectiveness will be enhanced through sector-specific expertise and understanding of multinational contexts in risk detection.

3. Enhanced International Administrative Cooperation

Cooperation mechanisms with international counterparts will be strengthened:

• Automatic exchange of information.
• Tax agreements between administrations and other economic actors.
• Simultaneous multilateral controls and joint inspections under the European frameworks in effect since 2024.

4. Targeted Review of Specific Intragroup Transactions

Special attention will be given to:

• Business restructurings, especially asset transfers (notably intangibles) and internal reorganizations that may result in base erosion.
• Intragroup payments and recurring losses, focusing on deductions for royalties, services, financial operations, and recurrent loss situations.
• Financial transactions and foreign structures, intensifying controls to prevent the artificial transfer of profits outside Spain.

There will be a close review of entities with low-risk functional profiles but significant presence, and scrutiny of the valuation methods and indicators used.

5. Mutual Agreement Procedures (MAPs) and Advance Pricing Agreements (APAs)

The AEAT reaffirms its commitment to:

• Promoting MAPs to prevent double taxation and speed up resolution timelines.
• Encouraging APAs as preventive tools to mitigate tax risks and enhance legal certainty for taxpayers.

6. Other Focus Areas for Large Companies and Multinationals

• FASTER system for withholding tax refunds to non-residents: Initial adaptations to the EU’s FASTER system will begin, aiming to streamline and secure excess withholding tax refunds, especially on dividends.
• Application of the BEPS Multilateral Instrument: Inspections will ensure effective implementation of international anti-avoidance measures, such as tax transparency and financial deduction limitations.
• Global Minimum Tax and new levies: Although the first Complementary Tax filings will occur in 2026, 2025 will be a crucial year for preparing its implementation.
• Fiscal group oversight: There will be increased review of deductions generated by economic interest groupings and compliance with requirements for consolidation into tax groups, along with audits of internal group transactions.
• Limited-scope verification procedures: Large Taxpayer Units will ramp up actions through agile procedures, especially focusing on VAT and Corporate Income Tax controls.

The 2025 Tax and Customs Control Plan confirms a clear trend: increasing tax supervision in an ever more globalized and complex environment. Preventing tax risks, enhancing international cooperation, and incorporating new data analysis technologies will be key pillars of the Spanish Tax Agency’s strategy this year.

In this context, it is essential for companies to review their transfer pricing policies, strengthen documentation compliance, and anticipate potential tax risks.

At ALS, we are fully prepared to help you meet these new challenges, offering specialized advisory services, preventive strategies, and comprehensive support to ensure legal certainty and effective adaptation to the Spanish Tax Administration’s evolving requirements.