The General Directorate of Taxes (DGT) has clarified through a binding consultation that days of quarantine (lockdown) in a foreign country allow a worker to benefit from the exemption provided for in Article 7.P) of the LIRPF.
The days in lockdown count for the purposes of 7.P)
Due to the health restrictions that prevail in the current panorama of the COVID-19 crisis, many countries have decided to impose quarantines on all travelers who arrive in their territory. Faced with this scenario, the question posed to the DGT was whether the time that a worker remains in the destination country complying with the quarantine imposed by the authorities of that country is counted as days that the worker has actually been posted abroad for the purposes of calculating the exempt remuneration provided for in Article 7.P) of the LIRPF.
In other words, the DGT intends to clarify whether, for the purposes of calculating the income exempt from taxation, the time that the displaced worker remains in quarantine in the destination country must be included.
In response to this question, the DGT recalled the recent ruling of the Supreme Court of February 25, 2021, which established that the expression "income from work received for work actually performed abroad" contained in Article 7.P) LIRPF must be understood to include the work income received by the worker corresponding to the days of posting to the country of destination or their return to Spain. Here we detail more information about this ruling: calculation of days of travel days for the purposes of 7.P)
Using this reasoning of the Supreme Court, and for the purposes of the application of the exemption in IRPF provided for in Article 7.P) of its regulations, the DGT answered that:
- the days of posting to the country of destination must be totaled in order to calculate the exempt income.
- the time that the worker remains in the destination country complying with the imposed quarantine will also be totaled for the purposes of determining the days of posting abroad in order to calculate the income that will be exempt.
Do you need information about the exemption for work abroad recognized in Article 7.P) of the LIRPF? Get in touch with our team of professionals, who will help you to analyze the tax benefits for posted workers in order to achieve the best possible international tax optimization.
