UNE 19602 Tax Compliance Certification 

No. EQA is a verification and certification body and does not provide advisory or consultancy services in its areas of activity. Our work consists of auditing and, where appropriate, certifying that your compliance management system has been designed in accordance with the reference standard, is implemented in your organisation and is being executed correctly. 

In order to undertake a certification process with guarantees of success, it is advisable that this fiscal/tax risk management system acquires the structure of the standard. To do so, you may need to plan a transition project prior to starting the certification process. 

In any case, at EQA we can audit your fiscal/tax risk management system even if it is not designed in accordance with UNE 19602, although this audit will not result in a certificate of conformity but in a verification report issued by an independent third party. These verification reports are requested in some areas, although it is expected that organisations will gradually replace the request for verification reports with the request for certificates of compliance. 

Undergoing a management system audit and certification process is – in principle – a voluntary matter. However, one of the natural objectives of implementing a system in accordance with a certifiable standard is precisely to go through the audit process and obtain a certificate of compliance. 

The certificate is the reliable way to expose to third parties that the organisation really has a compliance management system in place. Although certification is a voluntary matter, there are certain markets where having a certificate can make the difference between being able to compete and being left out. 

On the other hand, auditing and certifying your system allows you to ensure that your system is alive in your organisation and can help you to detect deviations and non-compliances, thus supporting the internal control work of the organisation. 

Obtaining a certificate of compliance of the compliance management system can be a valuable tool and a solid indication in favour of the organisation in the event that a tax contingency or offence has occurred, insofar as it can serve as proof of the organisation’s willingness to comply. 

This has been stated by judicial bodies in relation to the criminal compliance certificate, and it would seem correct to extend this interpretation to the tax sphere. In any case, it must be pointed out that it will be the tax administration and, where appropriate, the courts of justice that will make the final decision on the value that can be given to the certificate in each situation. 

In principle, the certification bodies are the subjects called upon to carry out these auditing and certification processes, as they are organisations that have been providing this type of services for decades, experts in working under the premises of independence, impartiality and technical competence. Moreover, those that have made a firm commitment to compliance – as is the case of EQA – will tend to have solid structures and their own staff with exclusive dedication to undertake these projects. 

In principle, using accredited certification bodies can be an indication that the entity complies with the appropriate levels of independence, impartiality and competence.