Should I pay a 5,000 euro late fee due to the fault of my spanish tax advisor?

Last Updated on March 18, 2026 by Bruno Bianchi

Question

Looking to get some advice on a scenario where I’m required to pay a 5,000 euro late fee due to the fault of my spanish tax advisor.
I’m working with an Asesor to file my Spanish taxes. I was told that I could make 2 payments to cover the balance. The first payment was not deducted from my bank account. I noticed this the day after it was supposed to be deducted and worked with the assesor to manually make a transfer to the Tax office. One week ago, I received a letter telling me that I owe 10,000 euros in late penalties because the original payment did not go through. My assesor says the late penalty can be reduced to 5,000 if I make the payment by Monday. I feel that I didn’t do anything wrong – I followed their instructions exactly. What recourse do I have when a late fee happens due to the fault of the assesor? I trusted them to advise me, since they’re the experts.

Answers

These are the answers of some Facebook group members:

“I have the impression that ‘professionals’ seem to do what they like and get away with it in Spain. Incompetence sadly reigns here. Good luck.”

“So how long does it take in a Spanish bank for a lump sum of money to be transferred or successfully posted as paid? In the United States there’s a $2,000 limit to money availability depending on what you’re doing with it. To pay $10,000 legally in the United States you’ve been looking at a minimum waiting period of about a week and a half. Did you post your payment early enough? The same thing applies if you deposit a lump sum of money it takes several days for your funds to be available to use. And if you’re doing an international money transfer it takes even longer for that money to be available. This gets easier over time as you’ve lived in country longer but I don’t think that’s something to be discounted as not playing a role”

“I have experience paying vat. The solution is to pay early and to keep in contact with your bank and tax preparer all day that it successfully went through. No other way.”

“First thing you have to pay the tax sanction to not generate interest and recharge after that you can submit a letter explaining what has happened and claiming a refund.
Anyway must be checked what has happened with the tax submitted to know why the tax office has sent you the requirement and the sanction.”

“Sorry about your situation, unfortunately if your payment didn’t go through for WHATEVER reason even if it is the tax authority’s fault/bug/whatever you will have to pay, been there done that unfortunately twice.”

“Here are Spainguru’s recommended tax experts“

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Bruno Bianchi is the founder and CEO of Spainguru, Spain's largest expat immigration community with 150,000+ members. Since 2014 he has helped thousands of people relocate to Spain through expert guides, webinars and vetted professional services covering visas, residency, taxes and life in Spain.

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