Spain has set the deadlines for the 2026 year-end accounts of its Social security . A regulation published in the Official State Gazette on 12 November specifies when the bodies involved must submit expenditure for review, file accounting documents and process payments. It comes into force on 13 November.
The requirements set out by the Ministry of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration apply to Social Security managing bodies and joint services, as well as the mutual insurance companies working with them and their joint bodies. The aim is to coordinate the closing of budget accounts and other accounting. The Ministry notes that similar procedures were also set in previous years.
The first deadline falls shortly after the regulation comes into force: bodies whose expenditure is subject to prior financial control must submit documents for the authorisation of expenditure to the relevant control offices by 16 November. The corresponding accounting documents must reach the accounting offices by 23 November.
Documents for the prior control of expenditure commitments must generally be submitted by 30 November, and the related accounting documents by 9 December. For the prior control of the recognition of liabilities, the regulation generally sets a deadline of 16 December.
Exceptions apply to several deadlines. These include, among other things, transactions arising from the recognition of benefit entitlements, staff expenditure, and certain expenditure relating to areas designated by the Council of Ministers as severely affected by a civil protection emergency. Separate year-end deadlines apply to the accounting documents for such transactions.
The final day for payments involving an actual outflow of funds is 30 December 2026. They are to resume on the first working day of January 2027 in accordance with the Social Security financial control . Exceptions to the submission of payment documents apply to certain benefits paid out only in the following year.
Some year-end work extends beyond the turn of the year. Documents relating to certain contribution settlements and transactions of the Social Security Reserve Fund may still be submitted until 5 March 2027. The relevant transactions and supporting documents must be backdated to 31 December 2026.
By the end of February 2027, the bodies must provide, among other things, information on certain income not yet recorded and on expenditure for which provisions may be required. Managing bodies and joint services must certify the amount of earmarked expenditure to the General Treasury of Social Security by 30 April 2027. According to the regulation’s explanatory memorandum, the rules create neither additional obligations for those they address nor a need for further public funds.
Editor: Daniel Mayer (Article created with AI assistance).