That when the subsidy is collected the service is paid is going to end. From January 1, recipients of official aid with European funds must prove, within 30 days, that they have transferred the payment to their suppliers for the contracted services. What if they haven't received the money? Let them pull the bank guarantee that was presented to request the funds, as no one forces them to get involved in financial operations. Otherwise, the subsidized person is subject to a penalty and cannot request them again until five years have passed. Employers who live on official aid as well as promoters of sporting events and tourism promotion companies will not be able to do interbank business and keep people waiting.
Thus, if a supplier from a business organization, union or company does not receive payment within 30 days, the official aid to which they have accessed is cancelled, that is, they must return the money. Most of these organizations generate events such as local fairs or digital marketing activities to justify their operation in this way. It is the beneficiary who will have to prove having paid and not the supplier, who is last in the chain of command.
No more using public sector money to triangulate with suppliers and develop pyramid schemes at the expense of suppliers. This has come into force since January 1, 2024 and this matter is being tried to be silenced so that suppliers remain in the dark.
The General Subsidies Law of 2022 established that companies that fail to make the deadline payments to suppliers provided for in the regulations to combat late payment could not be beneficiaries of subsidies of more than 30.000 euros. The application of the standard to certain types of suppliers or the verification of compliance with the payment deadline in the numerous sectors in which the written formalization of contracts is not common.
This is what Royal Decree-Law 5/2023, of June 28, establishes in the aforementioned General Law of Subsidies. Thus, it is no longer that potential beneficiaries of subsidies “must not fail” to comply with the payment deadlines to suppliers established in the late payment regulations, but rather that they must now “prove compliance” with them.
The applicable period will be 30 days from the date of receipt of goods or provision of services (except in the case of use of electronic invoice in certain cases). There is the possibility of de facto extending the period up to a maximum of 90 days if the parties have established in the contract an acceptance or verification procedure to verify the conformity of the goods or services, which may not exceed 30 calendar days. But extending that period must be very justified.
While the Spanish private sector is still assimilating the regulations in force and trying to comply with the current maximum payment terms to suppliers (67 days on average in the private sector in 2022 according to the latest report from the Multisector Platform against Late Payments) with the consequences commented in case of non-compliance, the European Commission has proposed a Regulation to Combat Late Payments in Commercial Operations that would reduce the maximum payment period to 30 days.
