Grant or aid application
This is the first step in processing a grant. It must be borne in mind that until the application has been submitted to the corresponding body, no investment should be made (sometimes not even setting up the company), since we may lose the possibility of requesting the aid. Faced with the need to carry out an investment or action, it will be done the day after the presentation of the aid application form.
The request is the document where the most important data of the project will be exposed. This instance is the one that offers the competent body a global vision of our business project or business. Some data that are usually consigned are: company name, CIF or NIF, address, project title, investment amount, financing of the same, data of the legal representative, jobs to be created, declaration of other pending aid or granted for the same project or investment.
The documents required to apply for the different grants and subsidies are, generally, the following:
- Application instance: This document is provided by the organization where the subsidy is to be applied for. Identifying data of the company: Name, social address, CIF, contact telephone number and email. Name and ID of the legal representative.
- Social data: Current share capital and planned expansion. Updated list of partners.
- Business background of the promoters or historical background of the company.
- Activity for which the subsidy is requested with its CNAE code (National Classification of Economic Activities). Aid requested and / or granted.
- Descriptive memory of the project for which the aid or subsidy is requested. It must include among other things:
- Justification of the investment: project objectives, description of the project and the investments to be made.
- Brief description of the processes for obtaining the main products or services and technology used, indicating whether the incorporation of the new assets will produce any technological innovation.
- Environmental improvements that the project implies.
- Products. Indicate planned improvements or innovations and the advantages they offer compared to similar competitive products. Cite raw materials used.
- Annual productions program. (products or services, prices, etc.).
- Jobs to create and / or maintain.
- Memory-budget of investments in fixed assets (land, works, machinery, etc.)
- Means and sources of financing for investments in fixed assets (own resources, loans, grants, etc.)
- Financial report: data of the work center object of the investment, referring to the last year and forecasts for the 1st. year of operation of the project (balance sheets and profit and loss accounts).
Commercial memory: situation of the market to which the products are destined, expectations, their current and future marketing routes, demand, prices of the same or competitive products, etc.
Other documents: Usually:
In case of being a natural person, (autonomous): DNI of the applicant. Proforma invoices of the investment to be made.
In the case of being a legal person, (S.L., S.L.U, S.L.L., S.A., Cooperativa, etc): Articles of incorporation. Power of attorney of the person signing the application. Proforma invoices of the investment to be made.
In any case, either to request the subsidy or at the time of justifying it, Certificates of being up to date with payments to the Treasury and to Social Security will be requested.
It must also be taken into account that all documentation as a general rule must be certified or collated, so original documents and their corresponding photocopies must be presented.
Resolution
The Resolution is the document (normally received by certified mail), which indicates whether or not the grant is awarded. If they grant it, it does not mean that they already have the money deposited in the account, but they will give the guidelines to follow (documentation to be presented, justification deadlines, etc.) to justify the investment that has been made and once justified they will enter the money in the indicated account, having to be the owner of it, the company (natural person or legal person).
There can be two cases:
Grant awarded: the body that manages the aid sends a letter notifying the conditions for the Collection of the aid, the eligible investment, the amount of grant awarded and the expected job creation requirement.
Subsidy denied: end of processing. The file is archived for not complying with the requirements or for having exhausted the available funds. A notification may be received stating the denial of the grant or it may be deemed denied due to administrative silence.
The maximum term to justify the investment will also be established in this document.
Justification
If in the Resolution they state that the subsidy has been granted, the next step is to justify the investment made. Once the investments have been completed, the relevant documents will be submitted.
Normally, to justify an investment, a general documentation will be requested (Certificates of being up-to-date with the payments in front of the Administration and last receipt of the Tax on Economic Activities I.A.E.) and the final invoices of the investment made with their corresponding proof of payment.
The payment of an invoice can be made in several ways, so that the proof of said payment will also vary according to the way in which said payment has been made.
The options are as follows:
Cash payments: I received from the supplier (only small amounts).
Payments by financial institution: copy of check or copy of bank transfer.
Deferred payments: copy of bank statement where the movement appears.
If the investment project involves the creation of jobs, it will also be required to demonstrate that such jobs have actually been created (remember that this aspect is very interesting when evaluating and awarding a grant), therefore that the way to justify it is by presenting the employment contract that has been entered into.
If the investment has not been made in its entirety, extensions may be requested (if the agency allows it) to justify it; If the project has not been carried out in its entirety, they will reduce the grant proportionally and, in the worst case, it will not be awarded.
Payment
After justifying the investment required and creating the job, all that remains is to wait for the agency to pay the grant awarded. As a general rule, they will make a transfer to the bank account or they will write a nominative check. In both cases, the account holder or the recipient of the check must be the company (natural person or legal person).
Other considerations
After having prepared a good file, following the guidelines indicated, it must be taken into account that, in the best of cases, the requested aid will not be materialized until at least six months from the moment of request.
It is very common that once the file has been presented, the corresponding Agency requires documentation or modifications in it, so it must be very attentive to these requirements since, in general, a period of 10 business days will be given from the receipt of the notification to be able to attach the required documentation or corrections; If these modifications are not submitted within the specified period, they will proceed to file and cancel the file.
It would not be too much, that even if notification is not received from the Administration, worry about monitoring the file by visiting the corresponding technician or by contacting the competent department.
As previously mentioned, the achievement of a grant will depend on many factors: budget availability, number of files submitted, grants that have been previously granted, geographical location of the investment project, etc., so it is not advisable to consider such helps as a fundamental pillar on which to base the investment project.
As a final point, remember that the investments for which the subsidy is requested may not have started and that, as its name indicates, it is an aid for the start or development of the investment project.
Follow-up by the administration
As a general rule, the granting agency of the aid will oblige to maintain the investments and the employment created for a minimum of years, during which the administration will be authorized to inspect the facilities and corresponding documentation. If the administration, in the required period, senses that the obligations to which the beneficiary is subject were not fulfilled, it would have the power to demand the return of the grant awarded as well as the applicable interest for updating the monetary amount.