The Renta 2025 campaign begins and the main risk this year is not in the deadlines or the calendar, but in a false sense of security that can lead thousands of taxpayers to make mistakes without being fully aware of it, especially when resorting to artificial intelligence tools to review or “validate” the declaration.
The president of the General Council of the Associations of Administrative Managers of Spain, Fernando Jesús Santiago Ollero, warns of a growing phenomenon: the combined use of the Tax Agency's draft and artificial intelligence as if they were an absolute guarantee of correctness. “We are starting to see something that particularly concerns us: taxpayers who tell us they don't need a review because they have run their tax return through an AI and it has told them it's fine. And that is exactly the problem,” he points out. He adds that “a tax return is not just a calculation, it is an interpretation of a person's real life,” something that —he emphasizes— neither the draft nor AI can fully perform.
From the General Council of the Associations of Administrative Managers of Spain they also remind of basic obligations that every year continue to generate errors, such as that all self-employed workers must file the declaration regardless of their income, that recipients of the Minimum Living Income are obliged to declare, and that, on the other hand, recipients of unemployment benefits do not have to do so merely by receiving them.
The failures of AI
Experts insist that the draft of the Tax Agency is only a proposal based on available data, but not a complete picture of the taxpayer's tax reality. In this sense, they warn that artificial intelligence also does not solve the underlying problem: the missing information. Among the elements that usually do not appear are deductible expenses such as union fees, professional associations, legal defense or certain real estate expenses such as repairs, insurance or amortizations, in addition to expenses typical of economic activities.
Limitations are also noted in especially sensitive areas such as leases, where the real rental periods or the situation of the property are not always correctly reflected, as well as in family and disability minimums, which require individualized analysis due to the complexity of each case. Added to this are frequent errors in capital gains and losses, where acquisition values or expenses associated with sales/purchases may not be correctly calculated, as well as failures derived from incorrect third-party data or from the omission of income obtained abroad.
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The 2025 Income campaign -the managers point out- also incorporates novelties that increase its complexity, such as new boxes for artistic income, adjustments in the self-employment regime or improvements in the taxation of capital gains, including operations with listed funds. Relevant changes are also introduced in deductions, such as that related to electric vehicles, where managers warn that "kilometer 0" vehicles do not always generate the right to deduction, or the new deduction for low work income, intended for taxpayers with incomes below 18,276 euros per year, with the aim of alleviating their tax burden.
In this context, the president of the administrative managers insists that each regulatory change can be an opportunity or a mistake if it is not applied correctly. “It's not about whether you get a refund or have to pay. It's about whether it's well done,” he states. And he concludes with a clear warning about the use of artificial intelligence in this field: “What is really dangerous is not paying more, but believing that everything is correct when no one has interpreted your situation. We always advise reviewing the draft in detail and consulting a professional in case of doubt, because filing your tax return without advice is often a bet that is lost without knowing it.”