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Tax · Spain

Carta informativa de la Agencia Tributaria sobre la Renta: an aviso, not a demand

This is an informative letter the AEAT sends around or after the annual income-tax campaign: it says the agency holds data that may not match your IRPF return, or that you appear obliged to file and have not. It is not a requerimiento, not a fine, and it imposes no obligation by itself.

How serious: routineAlso called: carta de la Renta, aviso de Hacienda, carta informativa AEAT, aviso de datos fiscales

No procedure has been opened. The letter tells you what data the AEAT holds — foreign pensions, rentals, platform earnings, crypto, or the fact of not having filed — and that it may not match what was declared.

Its practical meaning: the agency is showing its cards and inviting a voluntary fix before it opens a formal checking procedure, which would be more expensive for the taxpayer.

Because it is informative, it sets no alegaciones deadline and contains no liquidation figures and no payment document. That absence is exactly what distinguishes it from a requerimiento or a propuesta de liquidación.

Who sends it

The Agencia Estatal de Administración Tributaria (AEAT) — Spain's national tax agency.

AEAT letterhead but no 'REQUERIMIENTO' or 'PROPUESTA DE LIQUIDACIÓN' title. Wording like 'le informamos', 'hemos detectado', 'aviso'; references to specific income (foreign pensions, rentals, platform earnings, crypto) or to not having filed. Crucially, it sets no alegaciones deadline and contains no liquidation figures or payment document.

The deadline

There is no fixed deadline: the letter opens no procedure and sets no legal response period. Nothing in it has to be answered by a particular date.

If you do nothing

Nothing happens automatically. But if the return really was wrong, waiting until the AEAT opens a formal procedure loses the cheap exit: a voluntary complementary return filed before any requerimiento incurs only the art. 27 LGT recargo (1% plus 1% per full month of delay; 15% plus interest after 12 months) and excludes penalties, whereas after a requerimiento the regularisation can carry sanciones of 50–150% of the unpaid tax (Ley 58/2003 arts. 27 and 191).

How it escalates

  1. 01No immediate consequence — the letter itself is informative.
  2. 02If the underlying discrepancy is real, the AEAT can open verificación de datos or comprobación limitada; from that moment a voluntary art. 27 regularisation is no longer possible — a 'requerimiento previo' cuts it off (art. 27.1).
  3. 03The formal procedure can end in a liquidación provisional plus a separate sanción (50%–150% of the unpaid quota for the infracción of art. 191), instead of the small extemporaneous recargo.

Your options, procedurally

  • The return can be checked against the letter's data in Renta WEB; if the return was correct, no action or reply is required.
  • If something was missing, an autoliquidación complementaria can be filed marking the tax and period concerned (AEAT sede, 'Modificar una declaración ya presentada'); filed before any requerimiento it triggers only art. 27 recargos, reduced by 25% if paid in the art. 62.2 window (art. 27.5).
  • If no return was filed at all despite an obligation to file, the declaración extemporánea for the missing year can be filed the same way.
  • The letter and proof of any correction can be kept in case a later requerimiento arrives.

Common questions

Is this letter a fine or a demand?

No. It is informative: it is not a requerimiento, imposes no obligation by itself, and opens no procedure. It sets no deadline and contains no payment document.

Does anything have to be answered?

No reply is required. If the return was correct, no action is needed at all. The letter is an invitation to check, not a demand.

Why does timing matter if there is no deadline?

Because a voluntary correction filed before any requerimiento costs only the art. 27 LGT recargo (1% plus 1% per full month; 15% plus interest after 12 months) and excludes penalties. After a formal requerimiento, a regularisation can carry sanciones of 50–150% of the unpaid tax.

Sources

Facts verified against the sources below on 28 August 2026.