The nightmare of Tamara Falcó and other influencers with the Treasury: the bargain is over

There are not a few who have found their particular paradise on social networks, where they take advantage of the influence they can have on other people to advertise certain products, experiences or trips and make a living (and in what way). ) with that. But Starting this Saturday, February 17, things change, since influencers will have the obligation to clearly inform their followers of the advertising they spread. on Instagram or other speakers.

As it is, there are only a few hours left until the deadline is met and all the countries of the European Union and all the digital platforms, regardless of their size, adopt the European Digital Services Law, which came into force on November 16, 2022.

Tamara Falcó She is one of the influencers on the national scene whose content will be affected, because as we already learned a few months ago, the Marchioness of Griñón does not usually use labels to indicate which content is advertising and not on her networks. “Tamara would be marking something as normal content that should be marked as a paid collaboration. In addition, all these collaborations, gifts and other remuneration must be declared to the Public Treasury, as detailed in the current legislation,” it arrived. to be explained on Telecinco by José Noblejas, digital marketing expert.

The daughter of Isabel Preysler and the late Carlos Falcó is not the only one who tends to omit certain indications in her commercial publications, since 70% of Spanish influencers do not clearly report what content is advertising. Many content creators do it to benefit from the algorithms and so that their publication does not appear as 'Advertising' in the Instagram feed or other networks. Since this Saturday, as we said, The obligation to inform is absolute both on large platforms and on those that have less than 45 million users.

On the other hand, it is worth noting that the Government is also about to approve the regulations that will impose a series of obligations regarding advertising and content (prohibiting inciting violence or discriminatory publications) on influencers. This rule will affect those content creators with more than one million followers and who earn more than 300,000 euros per year.

It must be remembered that Until not long ago, no influencer declared bribery to the Tax Agency, much less the trips they enjoyed or the restaurants they went to in exchange for advertising on networks.. But the story (and the law) changed: they are not considered income as such but they are remuneration and, therefore, they must be reported.

The General Law of Audiovisual Communication (published in the BOE in July 2022) defines influencers as providers of audiovisual communication services and, as such, they must be registered as self-employed or have their own company and must, in turn, register in a State Registry. In addition to billing their professional activity like that of any other self-employed worker, they must communicate any service (trip, restaurant, beauty session, manicure…) that they receive in exchange for advertising or mention on social networks, as well as such as the gifts (clothes, bags…) they receive from brandssince the Tax Agency considers them susceptible to declaration.

Thus, the services for which an influencer must declare to the Treasury are divided into five categories: direct advertising, consumer advertising, travel and gifts, YouTube (in the event that the platform makes a commission to the account holder by random advertising) and sale of products.