Sunday, January 8, 2012

Spanish property owners face a double tax shock

In among a welter of new taxes that have been introduced by the new conservative-led Spanish government, are a couple which will hit foreign owners of Spanish property:

(1) The non resident tax rate is set to rise to 24.75% from the current 24% level.  That doesn't sound much but it comes on top of the reintroduction of the wealth tax and a big crackdown on holiday home owners who neglect to pay their taxes (see our guide What to do if you get a letter from the Spanish tax office)

(2) IBI or local property taxes are also set to rise across the country by an average of €30 for each of the next two years as the government seeks to let local councils raise about another €1 billion in taxes.  It is supposed to be a temporary measure.

Older properties that haven't been revalued for 10 years will be the worst hit as the tax will go up 10%

If you want to see whether you will get off lightly or suffer then take a look at your last IBI bill and look for the "ano rev" or year of revaluation - if it is 2002 or prior it will be a 10% rise, 2002-6 6%, 2009 or later 4%.  Properties revalued between 2007-8 will see no increase as they were the peak property bubble years and the properties are overvalued any way.

6 comments:

  1. As it says above, property prices are overvalued, so why are town halls not doing more revaluations to take account of this? IBI rates may go up, but if they are based on realistic valuations, it would be more acceptable.

    Unfortunately, Spain has become one big rip off.

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  2. I mostly agree but with one caveat - IBI is still very low compared to the equivalent Council Tax in the UK so it is still, despite these rises, acceptable from that point of view.

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  3. IBI, MAY BE ALOT LESS THAN THE UK. BUT GENERAL INCOME TAX IS ALOT HIGHER!!!
    AS THE PERSONAL ALLOWANCE NEVER GOS UP,YOU EVENTUALLY END UP PAYING TAX
    ON YOUR STATE PENSION?

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  4. IBI may be alot less than the UK. but general income tax is a lot higher.
    and as the tax allowance never seems to go up! you eventually end up being taxed on your state pension?

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  5. Our IBI has gone up by 15.4% this year - the council claim the properties on our urbanisation were undervalued! Strangely, this seems only to apply to the urbanisation, not the town itself.

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