I must say that the Spanish tax man is very quick to take the tax off you but it is very difficult to try and get tax returned. I am waiting over 12 months to have my tax returned even though I have a letter from the court to say that the money paid was to be returned, I am still waiting. if the tax man was to be as quick returning it as he is taking it it would be o/k.
the thing is that the tax I am reffering to is tax that we paid on a property that we DID nOT complete on.
Prior to going to court to get our money refunded from the developer we had according to out solicitor pay tax on the ammount we had given to the developer… then when the sale was dissolved in court the judge told us to claim the tax back from the council and our solicitor immediatley started proceedings to do so but that was exactly 12 months ago and still no sign of it being returned. We were over in Spain last week ( on holiday) and we were speaking to the solicitor, who may i point out is verry good and he phoned them again while we were in his office but the thing is that they are a goverment body and like all goverment offices they do things in their own sweet time. The people in the council office in Benalmadena assured the solicitor it was now in progress as they say they filed the papers to the incorrect office . Basically we are trying to get returned to us tax we paid on a property that we never bought!!
the tax we paid was given direct by our solicitor to the council office. By rights if all was as it should be it would be paid on completion but because we were not going to be going ahead our solicitor said we must pay it before going into court or else if and when we went to court the judge could impose penalties on us for not paying it… anyway we paid it to our solicitor who then went to the council in benalmadena and paid it on our behalf direct to the council and when finally we went to court and it was resolved the judge said we could claim it back from the council to which it was paid and gave us the necessary paperwork. The council appeared to have mislaid or sent our claim for the return of the tax money and that is what we were told last week. the council themselves are in the process of doing the necessary paperwork and it probably will go to 1000 different offices before we eventually get it back. The sum involved is about 1,500 euro so that is why they are slow to give it back!!
If we had given it to the developer I am sure we would kiss it goodbye as it was so difficult to get our original money back from them ( having to go to court to do so and put a freeze on their bank account which lasted 4 months) I am sure we would never get it back if it was the developer (Aifos) but as it is the council themselves then we will get it back but the question is how long more… hopefully it will be in the next few weeks!
I’m a non-resident thinking of selling my flat in Cadiz. I am aware of the 18% Spanish tax for value increase above what I paid for the flat.
But, I hear that the UK government ALSO wants a slice of the action too when I transfer the sale proceeds back to the UK. Is this true? If so, what kind of percentage does the UK government take?
Depends upon how much you earn. If you are in the higher rate, then the UK Taxman will get you at 40% of gains, though the 18% you pay in Spain is deductible.
1) In so far as UK Taxes are concerned. You can use your House in Spain as your main home and thus full exemption.
2) If you have rented the flat you have two years to purchase a another thus claiming roll over releif.
3) Wether you transfer the funds to UK or not is irrelevent. The Tax is due for the respective tax year.
I am assuming that you are a non resident in Spain for Tax purposes i.e.spend less than 183 days. Further the transfer that you are refering to relates to non UK domicile.
Betty boo:
What Tax are you talking about:
Income Tax, Capital Gains Tax. ( Not VAT/IVA or any other properrty Taxes) The claim can be only made if your Country is part of the double taxation treaty between your home Country and Spain.
From the above it stands to reason that if the properrty was never completed i.e. you never made any capital increase in its value. Then there is no tax to pay in the first instance.
the tax I paid was Vat/iva Property tax. I know it makes no sence that we should have had to pay it but our solicitor suggested we pay it as he said we must…even though we were going to court to get our money back on the property as we did not complete.
The judge … when it went to court ruled and gave us the relevant forms to have the vat/tax returned to us after the court case and our solicitor applied to Benalmadena council to have it returned and it should have been returned by the end of last year but due to the paperwork being mislayed 9that is the councyls story anyway) it was not returned.
We were over in Spain in April and it has been now over 1 year since our solicitor applied to have it returned and our solicitor contacted them while we were thre to find out what the news on it is only to be told that the paperwork is now in order and they will be processing it straight away!!
still waiting!!!
I know it sounds unbelieveable that we should pay tax on a property that we did not complete on but nothing makes sence when dealing with the legal system in Spain.
my husband suggested to the solicitor that maybe he should phone them in Spain every week to try and put pressure on the council to return it…
the solicitor advised against this as he said it was only likley to annoy them and therefor they could possibly “loose the paperwork again”
What do you think of this ?? I might add I have every faith in our solicitor he is an honest man!!only for him we would not have gotten our money back from the developers in the first place.
good news to report!!
the tax was returned to us today …PLus interest, so there is light at the end of the tunnell after all, we are very pleased, it took over 1 year but at least they returned it!!! 😀
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