Legislative updates, changes in the types of taxes or the revision of the contractual terms of certain agreements may require us to confirm the date of accrual. This point in time will mark a before and after, which may mean paying more or less, benefiting from some kind of advantage or not, or having certain rights and obligations modified.
All these assumptions reveal the importance of knowing the accrual date.
The accrual date is an agreed-upon time between two parties for an obligation to be met.. Generally, the accrual date is the day on which a service user benefits from it or, in the case of a buyer of goods, the day on which they are made available to them.
Many times, The question regarding the date of accrual is related to the payment of VAT.. In this case, the moment in time to consider for determining the percentage at which a transaction will be taxed is the day on which the transaction took place.
The accrual date and the payment date are different., as the first indicates the day on which an obligation is incurred, which originates from a binding agreement between the parties; and the second will surely be related to the billing date, since, without the invoice document, the person who has enjoyed a service or acquired a good does not know the amount they owe.
For this very reason, nor do the date of accrual and the date of invoicing have to coincide, although they may do so in the case of services on a continuing basis, as is the case with gas, electricity, or internet supplies, for example, where, for management reasons, they are considered to coincide in time.
In practice, a person renting a flat by the beach during the first fortnight of June may receive the bill for the rental amount the following month. Nevertheless, the accrual date will be 15 June, the day on which they finished their stay in the holiday home after two weeks of enjoying the property.
This difference in days can lead to greater complexity in the management of the Administration, which sees the accrual date being marked on specific days, and with it, the obligations of consumers.; while the information they receive from companies can be delayed by weeks, because the invoice is accounted for based on its issue date, which is usually at the end of the month.
In any case, When in doubt, it is always advisable to refer to the provisions of the Law and to the clarifications, sometimes with examples, that the Tax Agency publishes on its web site, such as:
Do you now have a clear understanding of the accrual date concept?
