A ruling by the National Court has confirmed that the YouTuber with millions of followers El Rubius and his company did not correctly pay taxes on the three million euros that his company earned between 2015 and 2016, when he was among the ten ‘influencers’ with the most followers on YouTube. worldwide. As other courts have said on previous occasions, the judges partially agree with him and withdraw a sanction, but certify that his company channeled its income incorrectly, paying less for Personal Income Tax (IRPF). .
Rubén Doblas, known as El Rubius, is one of the most relevant influencers in Spain with more than a decade of experience on YouTube and other social networks. In 2013 he became the first Spanish YouTuber to exceed one million subscribers and, three years later, in 2016, he surpassed the figure of 20 million followers on this social network, which he called “little creatures of the Lord”, and He was among the content creators with the most fans worldwide.
The young man’s income grew as the millions of people who watched each of his videos also increased. And he began to channel his income through a company called Snofokk SL. The Treasury, as has been the case for years with other personalities in the field of communication or the audiovisual world, put a magnifying glass on his tax returns and discovered that, for several periods, he had taxed his earnings incorrectly.
As elDiario.es revealed, the first resolutions that ruled in favor of the Treasury came from the Superior Court of Justice of Madrid (TSJM). They were rulings on the YouTuber’s personal income tax and his company’s corporate tax in 2013 and 2014, years in which his career was beginning to take off. The judges concluded that his company Snofokk channeled all of his income and then paid a portion to the YouTuber. The result: Rubius underpaid in those years for Personal Income Tax, which was more burdensome than the Corporate Tax that his company had paid.
In those first sentences the TSJM certified that he would have had to personally pay 50,000 euros more to the public coffers. But the tax inspection continued and the Treasury delved into his accounts for 2015 and 2016, years in which his company’s income increased exponentially: in 2015 he declared 938,000 euros and, a year later, two million. Of that money, El Rubius billed his own company 459,000 euros in the first year and 807,000 in the second. In both cases it is half or less of the money that had actually been generated.
In a ruling still appealable to which elDiario.es has had access, the National Court has confirmed this criterion of the Tax Agency and understands that his company was, in reality, a company that was limited to channeling its work, without which the The company itself made no sense and did not contribute anything added. The judges partially uphold the YouTuber’s appeal and agree to eliminate a fine that the Treasury imposed on him under the accusation of not providing all the documentation that had been requested.
Fourth sentence against the youtuber
The contentious-administrative judges of the National Court recall that three previous rulings by another court, the Superior Court of Justice of Madrid, already examined the corporate structure that El Rubius used to channel its income and reached a conclusion: that his company, At least at that time, “it lacked material and human resources and did not add any value.” All the money came from a “very personal activity” of the YouTuber and Snofokk SL only contributed one thing: paying a part of his profits through the most benevolent Corporate Tax.
Rubén Doblas was the majority partner of the company at 98.7% and the rest was divided between two family members in charge, among other things, of administrative management tasks, ‘merchandising’ or its relationship with the media. “They do not provide relevant added value,” the Treasury concluded and the judges now confirm. Neither the contracts, nor the income from his videos, nor his income from the books he published in those years can be explained, he adds, without the figure of El Rubius.
As is usual in this type of process, the ruling explains that in parallel with the inspection of your personally paid personal income tax, there is another one analyzing your company’s Corporate Tax payments. This implies that, at the moment, there is no firm resolution on how much money El Rubius underpaid in his personal income tax for 2015 and 2016.
Echoing the arguments of the Tax Agency, the ruling does conclude that the company paid the YouTuber much less money than his activity actually generated those two years, when he was one of the most recognized ‘influencers’ worldwide. The amount of the appeal was set by the judges at more than 926,000 euros and he explains that, for example, in 2016 his company earned more than two million euros, but it only paid him 807,000 when it should have paid him one million more based on the market price of its activity.
These are arguments identical to those deployed by the TSJM when the YouTuber, who has lived in Andorra – where taxes are lower – for four years like other Spanish ‘influencers’, tried to combat other unfavorable settlements and sanctions. At the end of 2022, up to three rulings related to his company and his personal tax returns from 2013 and 2014 forced El Rubius to pay more than 50,000 euros that he had saved in personal income tax, in addition to paying a penalty of 23,000 euros for trying to deceive the public coffers.
This Treasury criterion on the use of companies to reduce the tax bill in case the company has no more mission than precisely to channel the money, obtained the approval of the Supreme Court in mid-2023 when the judges confirmed that the announcer Carlos Herrera He had also erroneously taxed his profits between 2006 and 2007 using a “shell company,” as elDiario.es revealed.
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