[rt21]

Just read an article by Edmund Conway in the Telegraph in which he states that “Athens’s latest wheeze to fill the gaping hole in its public finances is to levy a tax of up to 20 per cent on people who have had extensions built on their holiday villas”. See link to the article below. Although the article does not go into any detail I thought that under E.U law a national government could not discriminate against E.U. citizens in this way

http://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/greece-s-debt-the-horror-story-has-only-one-ending-tele-d50aaaec5677.html?x=0

Having said that I must confess that one of my fears is that Spain may also target holiday homes in some way as a means of raising extra income to fill their black hole.

Richard

[peterhun]

If it applied to all second homes then it would not be discrimination.

Having said that I must confess that one of my fears is that Spain may also target holiday homes in some way as a means of raising extra income to fill their black hole.

I think that’s a certainty.

[Fuengi (Andrew)]

I don’t know. a lot of spanish have got second homes. Do you think politicians would be that brave?

[peterhun]

@Fuengi wrote:

I don’t know. a lot of spanish have got second homes. Do you think politicians would be that brave?

Are there more second home owners than unemployed and not-so-rich in Spain?

[Anonymous]

I don’t know if the writer of this article has confused his facts or not, but I think he may be referring to the ‘covered terrace’ problem that’s been on-going here in Greece for decades but which is now being addressed with a 20% tax.
Basically, where the Greeks have been naughty is they build a house with a covered terrace, then once the build is approved as all ok, they glass it in (or even brick it in 🙂 ) thus making an extension/extra bedroom/sunlounge whatever. In Athens you even see blocks of flats with many balconies that have been glassed in.

Because of this ongoing problem the government have come up with this tax if you get caught. Before, you just paid a one-off fine and you get it legalised. They then talked recently about allowing only 1.8 metres depth for a covered terrace to make it inpractical to make another room but all the architects went mental and complained that that would give inadequate shade from the sun which is stupid for a hot country. So they’ve now come up with this 20% annual tax idea. A nice little regular earner for the Government as against the previous one-off fine. So I think the tax mentioned in this article applies to everyone, whether residential or holiday-home owner, Greek or German etc.

Plus of course a massive initial fine 😉 – like the UK Government, looking like crazy for a way to fill that gaping financial hole.

[petej]

I think it can be taken for granted that all governments will be looking to clamp down on tax evasion to get extra funds, what’s happening is Greece is just that and we can expect the same is Spain and UK as well as every were else!

[Fuengi (Andrew)]

@peterhun wrote:

@Fuengi wrote:

I don’t know. a lot of spanish have got second homes. Do you think politicians would be that brave?

Are there more second home owners than unemployed and not-so-rich in Spain?

You know what, I would not be suprised if there were.

[Anonymous]

Peterhun wrote;Are there more second home owners than unemployed and not-so-rich in Spain?
I would say that’s absolutely guaranteed. Where I live, amongst Spaniards in one of the poorer regions of Spain, all my neighbours have at least one other house. Not necessarily ‘holiday homes’ but passed down through the family. Also , most that I know who live in apartments have casa de campos they go to at the weekend.

[Author]

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