A taxpayer registered at the employment office corresponding to his place of residence is appointed as an interim civil servant in a certain Autonomous Community. Acceptance of the job entailed a change of residence to another town in the 2017 tax period. In the 2018 tax period the taxpayer resigned from that post, having been offered another post as a civil servant in another administration.
Faced with doubts about the taxation of this situation, he submitted a query to the DGT regarding the possibility of applying the expense for geographical mobility, as well as the tax periods during which this expense may be applicable.
In general, the increase in the deductible expense for geographical mobility (LIRPF art.19.2 and RIRPF art.11) is conditional on the taxpayer's actual change of residence to a new municipality, other than that of his habitual residence, and that the new job requires such a change. In this regard, it should be pointed out that simple registration on the census register is not in itself considered sufficient proof of residence and habitual residence in a given locality, nor is the fact of moving or maintaining the tax domicile in a given place. The actual change of residence and the need for it is a question of fact.
The taxpayer must be able to prove compliance with all the requirements by any means of evidence admissible in law, and it is up to the management and inspection bodies of the Tax Administration to assess the evidence provided. If the requirements are met, the increase in the deductible expense for geographical mobility will be applied in the tax period in which the change of residence takes place and in the following one (in 2017 and 2018 in the case in question), regardless of whether new changes of job take place within the period of application.
