Read an AEAT letter before replying

A tax-office letter is rarely the best thing to read in a hurry.

For a freelancer or a small business in Spain, the first impulse is usually to look for the scary part: the amount, the deadline, the word requerimiento, the possibility of a penalty. That is understandable. It is also the easiest way to miss the practical details that tell you what the AEAT is actually asking for.

Before answering, slow the process down. The first job is not to defend yourself. The first job is to identify the notification, confirm where it came from, download the right files, and understand whether you are looking at a notification, a communication, or a request that needs action.

First, confirm where the notification lives

The AEAT’s own notifications page points taxpayers to several official ways to consult notifications and communications: the AEAT electronic office, the unread notifications summary by appearance at the electronic office, and the Direccion Electronica Habilitada Unica, usually called DEHu.

That matters because the letter is not just a PDF. It sits inside a procedure, with metadata around it. In DEHu, the AEAT explains that you can access notifications and communications from the AEAT and other integrated public administrations. You do not need to create a prior DEHu mailbox or register a new inbox before accessing it.

For a freelancer, that means the reading process should start in the official channel, not in an email preview or a forwarded screenshot. Go to the AEAT route or DEHu route, identify yourself, and read the notification from the source.

DEHu allows access with Cl@ve, certificate or electronic DNI, and eIDAS identification systems for users from other EU countries. If you access with a representative certificate for a legal entity, DEHu shows the entity being represented. That distinction matters for companies: make sure you are reading the notification for the right taxpayer, not only under the right personal login.

Read the status before the text

A common mistake is opening the document and going straight into the body text. The official DEHu interface gives useful context before that.

DEHu separates pending notifications from completed notifications. Pending notifications are those still awaiting electronic appearance. The search tool can filter by criteria such as date made available, expiry date, and holder NIF. It also offers an advanced search to combine several criteria.

That is the first reading frame:

Who is the holder?
What is the NIF?
When was the notification made available?
Is there an expiry date shown?
Is it pending, accepted, rejected, or expired?

Once you perform the electronic appearance and access the notification content, DEHu indicates that the system changes the status to accepted and moves it to completed notifications. The files area contains the notification document, any annexes, and the receipt or acknowledgement for download.

Do not treat the receipt as a formality. Save it with the notification and annexes. If you later need to reconstruct what happened, the receipt is part of the official trail.

Distinguish a notification from a communication

DEHu shows notifications and communications separately. That is not a decorative distinction.

The AEAT technical help page describes both notifications and communications in the electronic notification environment. In DEHu, notifications can appear as pending, accepted, rejected, or expired. Communications, by contrast, are shown in their own section and can be downloaded directly.

Before answering anything, identify which one you have. A communication may inform you of something. A notification may place a document at your disposal inside a procedure. A requirement may ask you to provide information or documentation.

The safest reading habit is to avoid guessing from the subject line alone. Download the document, check whether there are annexes, and read the full text. If the document refers to a reference number, file number, taxpayer NIF, tax period, tax form, or specific procedure, copy those details into your working notes before drafting any response.

Build a small reading checklist

You do not need a complicated system. You need a repeatable one.

Before answering an AEAT requirement, extract these details from the official document and the official notification screen:

Taxpayer name and NIF.
Whether you accessed as an individual, freelancer, representative, or legal entity.
Notification status in DEHu or the AEAT electronic office.
Date made available, if shown.
Expiry date, if shown.
Procedure or file reference.
Tax, period, form, or transaction mentioned in the letter.
Exact action requested.
Documents or annexes attached by the AEAT.
Documents you may need before responding.
Receipt or acknowledgement of access.

This is deliberately plain. A rushed answer often fails because the person replies to the general anxiety of the letter, not to the exact administrative request. The checklist keeps you attached to the text.

If the letter asks for documentation, separate what you have from what you need to obtain. If it refers to a period, do not mix documents from a different quarter or year. If it includes annexes, read them before drafting the response; the annex may contain the detail missing from the first page.

Be careful with rejection and expiry

DEHu allows a notification to be rejected from the interface. The AEAT’s help page gives a clear warning: rejecting a notification does not stop the open administrative procedure.

That point is easy to underestimate. Rejecting the notification is not the same as making the matter disappear. It changes the status, but the procedure continues.

DEHu also shows completed notifications with color-coded statuses: accepted, rejected, expired, and expired in the Tablon Edictal Unico. The official help page does not turn those labels into advice about what to do in every case, so the conservative approach is simple: do not reject or ignore a notification because you are unsure. Read it, download the files, and ask for professional help if the requested action is not clear.

For a small business, this is where internal process matters. The person who receives the alert may not be the person who should answer. That is fine. What is not fine is leaving the letter in limbo because nobody decided who owns the next step.

Set up alerts, but do not rely on alerts alone

DEHu can send an informational notice to the email address you have entered in “Mis datos de contacto” each time you receive a new notification or communication from the AEAT. The AEAT help page says you can provide up to five email addresses.

Those alerts are useful, especially in a small business where the owner, administrator, and accountant may not be the same person. But the alert is not the notification itself. Treat it as a prompt to enter the official channel.

To receive these email notices, DEHu requires you to add the email address, accept the conditions, save it, and verify the address with a code sent by email. The help page also explains that notices can be received for notifications or communications when the issuing body is attached to DEHu.

There is also a push-notification route through Notifica App, if the device has been added from the app and the identification step has been completed. For most freelancers and small companies, email verification is the simpler first control.

A practical setup is to use more than one verified email: one operational address and one adviser or administration address, if that matches how your business works. Then set a calendar habit to check the official inbox anyway. Alerts reduce risk; they do not replace review.

Decide what the answer should do

Once you understand the notification, the answer becomes less emotional.

Ask four questions before preparing anything:

Is the AEAT asking for information, documents, clarification, payment, or another specific action?
Which official reference or file number must the answer mention?
Which documents support the answer?
Are you sure the response channel and procedure match the document received?

Use the official channel that corresponds to the notification, not a generic inbox or an improvised reply.

If you are missing documents, write down what is missing and who can provide it. If the request mentions a period or form, match your supporting documents to that period or form. If the request is ambiguous, get advice before sending a partial or speculative answer.

The goal is not to sound defensive. The goal is to answer the document you actually received.

A calmer way to read the next AEAT letter

The best first response to an AEAT letter is a methodical read.

Open it from the official source. Confirm the taxpayer. Check the notification status. Download the notification, annexes, and receipt. Separate notifications from communications. Note dates and references. Then decide what the answer needs to prove or provide.

That habit does not remove the stress of receiving a tax-office letter. It does make the next step clearer, and clarity is useful before you, your accountant, or your adviser sends anything back.