Royal Decree-Law 15/2020 of 21 April on Urgent Complementary Measures to Support the Economy and Employment

OFFICIAL STATE BULLETIN No. 112 Wednesday, April 22, 2020 Sec. I. Page 29473 I. GENERAL PROVISIONS HEAD OF STATE 4554 Royal Decree-Law 15/2020, of April 21, on urgent complementary measures to support the economy and employment. PREAMBLE I Following the declaration by the World Health Organization of the international pandemic caused by COVID-19 on March 11, the rapid spread, both nationally and internationally, has motivated the need to react quickly and adopt urgent and decisive measures aimed at mitigating the impact of this unprecedented crisis. Royal Decree 463/2020, of March 14, declared the state of alarm for the management of the health crisis situation caused by COVID-19, which includes, among other issues, limitations on freedom of movement, with the effects this entails for workers, businesses, and citizens. This process was reinforced by Royal Decree-Law 10/2020, of March 29, which regulated a paid and recoverable leave for employees who do not provide essential services, in order to reduce population mobility in the context of the fight against COVID-19. This established, for two weeks, that workers who could not telework or whose activity was not included among essential services must remain confined to their homes, establishing a paid and recoverable leave for them. The state of alarm has been extended twice, remains in force until April 26, and it is planned to propose to the Congress of Deputies a new extension until May 9 next. The social distancing measures have been successful in containing the epidemic, but they have a significant impact on much of the economic activity, both national and international, as well as on the expectations of agents. After the introduction of the first social distancing measures, a positive economic tone was maintained except for some sectors such as tourism, directly affected by the fall in international demand and the progressive closure of borders. The restrictions on mobility and activity that accompanied the state of alarm marked a turning point, with a sudden drop in production and employment, with significant income losses for households, self-employed individuals, and businesses. Therefore, the government has articulated the response to the COVID-19 emergency on a triple level: health, economic, and social. The measures adopted on the health level to contain the spread of the virus have been accompanied by measures to support the productive fabric and weave a safety net for citizens, especially the most vulnerable. Thus, in the different phases of the fight against the virus, the health regulations to reduce mobility and the risk of contagion have been accompanied by packages of economic and social measures aimed at (i) strengthening the financing of the health response, both in the field of care and research (ii) maintaining the income of families and workers, both employees and self-employed, addressing the situation of the most vulnerable and (iii) guaranteeing the liquidity of companies and supporting the maintenance of the productive fabric, with special attention to SMEs. All these measures aim to prevent the epidemic from leaving permanent scars, hindering recovery, and their implementation is allowing the maintenance of activity and employment in many companies, which, when the health crisis is overcome, will be able to gradually resume their activity. The decisions taken and the measures put into operation are aligned with the measures being adopted by countries in our environment and in accordance with the recommendations of European Union and international organizations. The G-20, meeting on April 15, agreed on an Action Plan to coordinate the economic policies and measures of its members, and pointed out the need to use all existing instruments of economic policy to support the economy, maintain confidence and financial stability, and avoid deep negative effects on economies. Within the framework of the European Union, various measures have been adopted to provide countries with a more flexible framework to articulate their responses to the pandemic, and on April 9 it was agreed to launch a package of proposals, which should be implemented in the short term to provide credits to finance the expenses of national treasuries related to the response to COVID-19, particularly in the health field and in relation to temporary regulation of employment programs. In this context, after the reinforced containment phase dictated by Royal Decree-Law 10/2020, of March 29, progress in the health field has allowed, from April 13, to return to the confinement situation and the level of economic activity previously corresponding to the state of alarm royal decree. As expected, the return to activity of the sectors considered non-essential has allowed a slight recovery of activity and a better evolution of the labor market, although still far from recovering the levels prior to the crisis caused by COVID-19. From this point on, the decisions that allow initiating a phase of greater economic reactivation will logically depend, as has been done until now, on the evolution of epidemiological indicators and expert recommendations, and will be made in parallel with the activation of personal mobility. In order to respond to the needs of reinforced support derived from the prolongation of this exceptional situation, to continue protecting and supporting the productive and social fabric, to minimize the impact and to facilitate that economic activity recovers as soon as this public health emergency situation begins to subside, a new package of measures is approved that reinforces, complements, and expands the previously adopted ones and focuses on support for companies and workers. Thus, this royal decree-law is structured in a preamble, 5 chapters, 26 articles, 15 additional provisions, 5 transitional provisions, 13 final provisions, and an Annex. II MEASURES TO REDUCE OPERATING COSTS FOR SMEs AND SELF-EMPLOYED INDIVIDUALS As a consequence of the exceptional measures adopted by Royal Decree 463/2020, of March 14, declaring the state of alarm for the management of the health crisis situation caused by COVID-19, many economic activities have been forced to suspend their activity or drastically reduce it. In view of the above, the lack of income or the reduction thereof during the period that the state of alarm lasts may lead to the financial incapacity of self-employed individuals and SMEs to meet, in whole or in part, their payment obligations for the rent of leased premises, which seriously risks the continuity of their activities. In the absence of an agreement between the parties, Law 29/1994, of November 24, on Urban Leasing, does not foresee any cause for exclusion from the payment of rent due to force majeure or declaration of a state of alarm or other causes, except as referred to in its article 26, relating to the habitability of the housing derived from the execution of works, which may be applicable to business premises via article 30 of this Law. Likewise, if one resorts to the regulation of the Civil Code regarding force majeure, it does not offer an ideal solution because it does not adjust the distribution of risk between the parties, although it may justify contractual resolution in the most serious cases. In light of this situation, it is appropriate to provide specific regulation in line with the "rebus sic stantibus" clause, of jurisprudential origin, which allows the modulation or modification of contractual obligations if the required requirements are met: unpredictability and inevitability of the derived risk, excessive onerousness of the due performance, and contractual good faith. It is considered convenient to offer a response that allows addressing this situation and regulating a procedure for the parties to reach an agreement for the modulation of the payment of rents for leased premises. III MEASURES TO STRENGTHEN BUSINESS FINANCING Chapter 2 regulates a wide package of measures to strengthen business financing. First, to facilitate that companies affected by the current health crisis can best meet the payments derived from credits granted from various administrative instruments, this royal decree-law empowers the Institute for Energy Diversification and Savings (IDAE), a public body attached to the State Secretariat for Energy, to grant deferrals of the installments of loans granted within the framework of its subsidy programs or reimbursable aid, thus extending to IDAE credits the possibility of installment deferral already approved in previous royal decree-laws for credits from the General Secretariat for Industry, the REINDU program, among others. In addition to taking measures to strengthen access to liquidity or facilitate the payment of credits, it is necessary to guarantee the continuity of the development of economic transactions and provide security to commercial operations in a context of uncertainty such as the current one. In this regard, the insurance sector plays a prominent role. Credit and surety insurance contribute to achieving these objectives, as they serve, respectively, as a guarantee for the collection of sales or service provision and for the fulfillment of legal or contractual obligations. In a context like the current one, it is necessary to strengthen the mechanisms that contribute to the insurance sector performing this role. Therefore, given the adverse situation of the credit market and the difficulties that, as a consequence of the reduction of insured risk coverage, may affect commercial relations and payments between companies, the Insurance Compensation Consortium is empowered to develop credit and surety reinsurance activities from 2020. Royal Decree-Law 8/2020, of March 17, on urgent extraordinary measures to face the economic and social impact of COVID-19, approved a line of guarantees granted by the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Digital Transformation to cover the financing granted by credit entities, credit establishments, electronic money entities, and payment entities to companies and self-employed individuals. The fundamental objective of this line of guarantees, endowed with a maximum amount of 100,000 million euros, is to preserve the normality of financing flows and levels of working capital and liquidity, particularly for SMEs and self-employed individuals. Specifically, the guarantee line must allow companies and self-employed individuals to continue paying their employees' salaries, be able to advance the collection of their invoices, through figures such as factoring, or anticipate the payment of invoices to their suppliers, through modalities such as confirming, thus establishing means for the maintenance of levels of economic activity and employment. The entities granting the financing must ensure compliance with these objectives, in order for liquidity to continue reaching the entire productive fabric, particularly through commercial credit channels and supplier payments. The aforementioned royal decree-law establishes that the applicable conditions and requirements to be met, including the maximum deadline for the guarantee application, will be established by Council of Ministers Agreement. On March 24 and April 10, the Council of Ministers adopted separate Agreements releasing a total of 40,000 million euros of guarantees to be granted to companies and self-employed individuals. 75% of the guarantees made available are concentrated in SMEs and self-employed individuals, as key agents of economic activity, whose access to liquidity is fundamental for the proper functioning of the productive fabric. To reinforce the liquidity support measures and broaden their scope, this royal decree-law, in a final provision, takes three complementary measures. First, it provides for a reinforcement of the re-guarantee granted by the Spanish Re-guarantee Company, S.A. (CERSA), in order to increase the guarantee capacity of the Reciprocal Guarantee Societies, present in all Autonomous Communities of Spain and with great capillarity as enhancers of access to financing for SMEs in the different geographical areas where they are present. In addition, it establishes that promissory notes incorporated into the Fixed Income Market of the Association of Financial Asset Intermediaries (AIAF) and the Alternative Fixed Income Market (MARF) may benefit from the guarantees, fostering the maintenance of liquidity sources provided by capital markets and not only through traditional banking channels. In both cases, the conditions of the guarantees will be established by Council of Ministers Agreement. Finally, it is guaranteed that the line of guarantees up to 100,000 million euros can be released until December 31, 2020. IV FISCAL MEASURES To allow the supply of sanitary material to be carried out quickly and effectively, a tax rate of zero percent for Value Added Tax (VAT) is established until July 31, 2020, applicable to internal deliveries, imports, and intra-community acquisitions of this type of goods whose recipients are public entities, non-profit organizations, and hospital centers. This is a fiscal policy measure that affects an extraordinary situation and aims to obtain significant effects during the period over which it will be in force, without intending to permanently affect the structure of VAT tax rates. To avoid the need to adapt the billing systems of taxpayers, these operations will be documented in the invoice as exempt operations. However, the application of a zero percent tax rate does not determine the limitation of the right to deduct the VAT borne by the taxpayer carrying out the operation. In order to adapt the calculation applicable to tax settlements to economic reality, two measures are adopted in the fiscal field. Regarding Corporate Tax, it is allowed, for tax periods starting from January 1, 2020 and with effects exclusive to said period, that taxpayers whose volume of operations has not exceeded the amount of 600,000 euros exercise the option to make installment payments, on the part of the taxable base of the period of the first 3, 9, or 11 months, by presenting within the extended deadline by the aforementioned Royal Decree-Law 14/2020 the installment payment determined by applying the cited taxable base modality. For taxpayers who have not been able to exercise the option according to the above and whose net turnover is not superior to 6,000,000 euros, it is foreseen that the option can be made within the deadline for the installment payment that must be presented in the first 20 days of October 2020, determined, likewise, by applying the cited taxable base modality. This measure will not apply to tax groups that apply the special tax consolidation regime regulated in Chapter VI of Title VII of Law 27/2014, of November 27, on Corporate Tax. On the other hand, it is essential to temporarily adapt the amounts of installment payments and advance payments of the different taxes determined according to signs, indices, or modules, as their activity is altered by the health emergency we are experiencing. Thus, the calculation of installment payments in the objective estimation method of Personal Income Tax and the advance payment of the simplified regime of Value Added Tax are adapted, proportionally to the time period affected by the declaration of the state of alarm in economic activities, which, being calculated on signs, indices, or modules previously determined in normal situations, would entail amounts not adjusted to the reality of their current income. Likewise, to flexibly regulate the SME and self-employed regime, the mandatory linkage for three years established by law for the waiver of the objective estimation method of Personal Income Tax, the simplified regime, and the special regime for agriculture, livestock, and fishing of Value Added Tax is eliminated, so that taxpayers can reapply said method in the 2021 exercise, provided they meet the regulatory requirements for its application. In this way, by being able to determine the amount of their net yield according to the direct estimation method, they can reflect more accurately the reduction in income produced in their economic activity as a consequence of COVID-19, without this decision affecting the method of determination of yields applicable in subsequent exercises. On the other hand, a new paragraph 3 is added to the eighth additional provision of Royal Decree-Law 11/2020, of March 31, on urgent complementary measures in the social and economic field to face COVID-19, in order to enable the filing and processing, within those contracting procedures whose continuation has been agreed by public sector entities in accordance with what is provided in paragraph 4 of the third additional provision of Royal Decree 463/2020, of March 14, of a special appeal on the terms established in Law 9/2017, of November 8, on Public Sector Contracts, without the appeal procedure being considered suspended. In this way, it is guaranteed, for all bidders participating in these procedures, the possibility of asserting their rights, as the deadlines for the special appeal provided for in Law 9/2017, of November 8, on Public Sector Contracts, will continue to be counted in the terms established in said Law. At the same time, the temporary validity of certain tax measures contained in Royal Decree-Laws 8/2020 and 11/2020, which had a temporal limit of April 30, 2020, or, where applicable, May 20, 2020, is extended until May 30, in order to guarantee the adaptation of these measures to the evolution of the crisis whose effects they seek to mitigate. This extension will also apply to the tax administrations of the Autonomous Communities and Local Entities by the referral made by article 53 of Royal Decree-Law 11/2020. Through Royal Decree-Law 7/2020, of March 12, on urgent measures to respond to the economic impact of COVID-19, a measure of temporary financial support was established, the flexibility in matters of deferral of tax debts, granting for six months this payment facility for taxes to SMEs and self-employed individuals, upon request, but limited to requests for deferral of debts regarding which, for not exceeding a certain amount, they were exempt from the obligation to provide a guarantee. As a complement to this possibility, the present royal decree-law arranges the possibility of subordinating the payment of tax debts to the obtaining of the financing referred to in Royal Decree-Law 8/2020, of March 17, on urgent extraordinary measures to face the economic and social impact of COVID-19, financing characterized by having the State's guarantee. A final provision is included modifying Royal Decree-Law 8/2020, of March 17, on urgent extraordinary measures to face the economic and social impact of COVID-19, which had already flexibly, through its article 33, among other deadlines, those related to the development of auctions and awarding of goods referred to in articles 104.2 and 104 bis of the General Collection Regulation, approved by Royal Decree 939/2005, of July 29. In order for the legal certainty that must preside over regulatory activity, particularly in current moments characterized by the continuous need for adaptation and perfection of the normative instruments that the legislator puts at the disposal of civil society, and as a complement to the norms of flexibility of tax obligations already implemented, a solution is arranged, through this legal modification in paragraph 3 of the provision, to adapt the exercise of rights by bidders and awardees in the disposal procedures developed by the State Tax Administration Agency to the extension of deadlines that affects said procedures, whereby the bidder may request the cancellation of their bids and the release of the deposits constituted and, where applicable, in addition, the price of the auction entered, provided that, as far as awardees are concerned, no certification of the award act of the goods or granting of public deed of sale had been issued. Finally, regarding Value Added Tax, given that confinement has increased the demand for cultural and information products by citizens, to facilitate access to books, newspapers, and digital magazines, through a final provision, the tax rate applicable to them is reduced to 4 percent, while eliminating the existing discrimination in matters of tax rates between physical books and electronic books. V MEASURES TO FACILITATE THE ADJUSTMENT OF THE ECONOMY AND PROTECT EMPLOYMENT In Royal Decree-Law 8/2020, of March 17, different measures were adopted regarding temporary suspension of contracts and reduction of working hours (ERTEs) with the objective of avoiding that a situat