Embargo & apremio All guides

Hacienda embargoed your bank account: what to do first

Last reviewed: 3 July 2026 · 8 official sources (BOE / AEAT) · Informational — not asesoría fiscal

An embargo on your bank account means an unpaid tax debt has reached enforced collection: AEAT has ordered your bank to retain funds up to the amount stated in the embargo order, limited by the balance available. The block is real, but it has rules: part of your money may be legally protected, and you still have options — if you act fast.

Step 1 — Find out which debt triggered it

Don’t guess. Log in to the AEAT Sede Electrónica debt consultation with Cl@ve, a digital certificate or DNIe. You’ll see every open debt, its amount, its stage and the reference number. And check who issued the order: a bank-account embargo isn’t exclusive to AEAT — Seguridad Social and local or provincial collection bodies (municipal taxes, traffic fines) run their own enforced-collection procedures, and the appeal route depends on which authority issued it.

Step 2 — Find the notifications you never saw

Enforcement starts with a providencia de apremio — a document that must be notified to you. It identifies the debt, adds the executive recargo (surcharge) of 5%, 10% or 20% depending on when you pay (art. 28 LGT), and warns that if you don’t pay within the deadline of art. 62.5 LGT, your assets can be seized (art. 167 LGT).

“But I never received anything.” Here’s the trap: companies and other legal entities must receive official notifications electronically, and some natural persons — including certain autónomos, such as members of professional colleges or representatives of electronically obligated taxpayers — are required to as well (art. 14 Ley 39/2015). If electronic notification applies to you (or you opted in), a notification you never open is deemed rejected 10 calendar days after it’s made available (art. 43.2 Ley 39/2015) — and the procedure moves on exactly as if you’d read it. That’s how people end up “notified” without ever seeing a letter. Open DEHú now and check what else is waiting there.

Nobody watches that inbox for you. Gestorro will — join the waitlist and get AEAT notifications and deadlines surfaced before they expire, on your own data.

Step 3 — Know what money is protected

If the frozen balance was credited as a salary or pension, part of it is protected: the amount up to the SMI (minimum wage) cannot be seized, and above that a progressive scale applies (art. 607 LEC). For bank-account embargoes, this protection covers what was credited as wages, salary or pension in the month of the embargo or, failing that, the previous month (art. 171.3 LGT).

If you’re an autónomo, income from your professional or business activity falls under the same art. 607 scale in principle (art. 607.6 LEC) — but for money sitting in an account this is not an automatic shield, and you may need to actively claim it. If protected income was seized, demand that the embargo be adjusted: start with the bank, then the issuing body.

Step 4 — The seized money doesn’t leave immediately

In a standard bank-account embargo, the bank pays the retained amount to the Treasury after 20 calendar days from the day after the seizure, unless the collection body instructs otherwise (art. 79.6 RGR). That window is practical time to act — but it is not a suspension by itself. Your options:

• Pay the debt (stops further recargos and interest from growing).
• Request an aplazamiento — deferral or instalments.
• Challenge it — on limited grounds that differ by document. A providencia de apremio can be opposed for: full payment or extinction of the debt, prescription, a pending deferral/instalment/compensation request or other suspension grounds, missing notification of the underlying assessment, its annulment, or serious identification errors (art. 167.3 LGT). A diligencia de embargo can be opposed for: extinction or prescription, missing notification of the providencia de apremio, breach of the seizure rules, or suspended collection (art. 170.3 LGT). The usual routes are a recurso de reposición or an economic-administrative claim, generally within one month.

Step 5 — Stop the next one

An embargo is never the first event — it’s the last step of a chain you didn’t see: a filing, a debt, a notification, a deadline. The embargo may extend to other accounts or rights you hold at the same bank, and enforcement can continue against other assets until the debt plus surcharge, interest and costs is covered (art. 79.1 RGR, art. 169.1 LGT) — including the accounts you actually live on. Check your full situation at AEAT (Step 1), open every pending notification (Step 2), and put your DEHú inbox under permanent watch.