Spain Tax

Have you sold a property in Spain in the last decade or so? What sort of Spanish taxes did you pay if you have? 15%, 18% 30% or even 35%. The truth is that the Spanish government has made a huge mistake. Between 1996 and 2007 they were charging non residents a whopping 30% Spanish capital gains tax and a 5% witholding tax on capital gains on property sale. The EU has declared that as a member of the EU Spain should have given equal treament to both Spanish residents and non residents. Therefore all of those non residents who sold their property before the law was changed in 2007 and paid this 30% Spanish tax plus the 5% witholding tax, are allowed to claim the money back.

Now in conjunction with various lawyers around the country in the areas most affected by the rule, the Costa Del Sol, Costa Blanca, Costa Brava and more, Houses For Sale In Spain and Valencia Property are encouraging you to claim the tax back. It is estimated that there are 238 million Euros ready to be claimed back totally legitimately. Now there are some provisos here. You should be able to prove that you sold a property at that time of course and that you paid the tax. You will need to show a tax declaration for the payment. You will need to have paperwork to hand. However the average return based on property values in that time is around 6-7000 Euros.

To demonstrate how this can work I will take the case of a German client who was selling properties in that time frame. When we sold his house for him in 2005 he was ready to pay the non-resident tax of 30% again. It was the seventh property he had bought and sold since coming to Spain in 1998. We told him that it was very easy to become a fiscal resident as opposed to a resident and therefore he would only pay 15%. This saved him a lot of money, the house was in the 400k region, so he was quite happy. Now i just wish we still had his details on the database because he is due back 15% tax on the six other properties he had bought and sold in the time period. I might well ask the current owners whether they still have his contact details.

So if you want to do a Spain tax reclaim get in touch. We will be happy to advise you of your best course of action and put you in touch with a lawyer specialising in this type of claim. The process is relatively painless, apart from the money paid to the lawyer of course, and they only ask for half of it upfront once they know you have the relevant paperwork. This is as close as it gets to an open and shut case in Spain so take advantage of it now.

Regards
Graham
www.spain-tax.com