Larraín Nesbitt Lawyers has over 16 year’s conveyancing and taxation experience at your service. Our team of native English-speaking lawyers and economists have a long track record successfully assisting expats all over Spain.
Blog post copyrighted © 2018. Plagiarism will be criminally prosecuted.
By Raymundo Larraín Nesbitt
Director of Larraín Nesbitt Lawyers
14th November 2018
The Supreme Court makes the headlines (again), but this time for good reasons.
In a ruling from last month, the Supreme Court established that Stamp Duty is only paid on the outgoing share in a Dissolution of Joint Property Ownership (DJPO for short), not on the full property value as until now.
I remind readers that following a DJPO is ideal on the following three cases (with up to 80% in tax savings):
- In a divorce or separation.
- Re-arranging inheritances.
- Re-arranging property holdings between family and friends.
So, what on earth does this new change mean in layman’s terms?
It simply means you pay less taxes now – which is always a welcome respite.
It always boggled the mind on why Stamp Duty was paid on the full 100% of the property when only a share or % was actually being transferred.
With this new tax change, a joint owner will only be required to pay Stamp Duty strictly on the outgoing share only, which translates into a massive tax saving. However, the damper is that I must stress that the change still requires further like-minded rulings to consolidate it and become the new High Court doctrine. This is the new direction going forward on this tax on DJPOs.
Example. Husband and wife divorce. They jointly own a villa in Andalusia. Wife buys 50% of the husband’s outgoing share on a property worth €500,000.
Before: ex-wife paid 1.5% Stamp Duty on the full property value= €7,500 euros
Post-ruling: ex-wife pays now = €3,750 euros (50% less tax)
Stamp Duty is a devolved tax of Spain’s 17 different autonomous regions. Each region is empowered to fix the tax rate within a sliding scale that varies between 0.5 and 1.5%. In Andalusia, for example, it is set at 1.5%.
And to close, as a gold nugget, the Supreme Court magistrates behind this new key ruling, are the same ones that ruled last 16th of October that lenders were to pay for Stamp Duty on mortgage loans, not the borrower; this landmark ruling caused a great commotion when the Supreme Court stepped in to appeal its own ruling and which prompted the Government to pass a new law on Stamp Duty to settle the matter amid the social backlash. They are a High Court section specialized in taxation.
We offer the most competitive fees in the market.
Dissolution of Joint Property Ownership
We are specialized in taxation
Larraín Nesbitt Lawyers, small on fees, big on service.
Larraín Nesbitt Lawyers is a law firm specialized in taxation, conveyancing, inheritance and litigation. We will be very pleased to discuss your matter with you. You can contact us by e-mail at info@larrainnesbitt.com, by telephone on (+34) 952 19 22 88 or by completing our contact form.
Legal & Tax services available from Larraín Nesbitt Lawyers
DJPO related articles
- Dissolution of Joint Property Ownership (article) – 8th of May 2011
- Dissolution of Joint Property Ownership (blog post) – 8th of September 2017
- Spain’s Supreme Court rules that in Dissolutions of Joint Property Ownership Stamp Duty is only paid on the outgoing share – 14th of November 2018
Please note the information provided in this blog post is of general interest only and is not to be construed or intended as substitute for professional legal advice. This article may be posted freely in websites or other social media so long as the author is duly credited. Plagiarizing, whether in whole or in part, this article without crediting the author may result in criminal prosecution. VOV.
2.018 © Raymundo Larraín Nesbitt. All rights reserved.
