spainrico

There is non resident property owners tax due whether you rent it out or not - but obviously if you rent it then there will be more tax due (but a different type)

bobd22

As has been said the None Residents property tax has been in place for a long time, I think the reference to 2010 is in fact the year they reduced the corresponding wealth tax to 0%.
My view is that many None Residents have taken the view that if they ignore the tax (even though know about it) the authorities will not pursue them. This may have been the case in the past but in the current financial climate they of course are rightly pursuing the matter to recover what is legally owed. I started researching buying in Spain about 7 years ago buying 5 years ago and everywhere I looked mentioned this tax so in my view people have ignored it by choice and there is little point complaining now. It is not difficult to do yourself or use the online services of spanishtaxformsonline which charge very reasonable rates.
I am surprised that these people were not contacted by their Spanish Solicitors to do the work for them the year after buying? I was but their costs were far too high so dealt with it myself.
As people have said ignorance or ignoring the tax is no excuse surely that is part of the problem in Spain and elsewhere people not having paid sufficient taxes. As for those that hope they have got away with it having sold and moved back to UK I myself think if it is financially worthwhile the authorities should pursue those that owe them money.

Rambling Rose

We got one of these letters at the beginning of this year. We got it because we bought our house in November 2007 but did not get round to registering as residents until Jan of 2008. So we owed wealth tax for 2007 and tax on supposed rental income for the 40 days we had owned the property.
I was annoyed that our lawyer had not told us we would owe this tax because it came as a bit of a shock arriving out of the blue over 4 years later. However we paid it and have heard nothing since.

bobd22

That does sound rather silly and as you say remiss of your solicitor. You would think they would have some sort of time allowance to enable you to become resident. I have a friend who got a letter similar to yourself, but they took about 18 months to obtain residency. I have tried to explain that ignoring the letter may come back and bite him? but he "knows better!". The none residents tax is also going up a little bit from next year I believe?

Chiclanagir

What together with the money that is owed for the mortgages that they walked away from as well?

Rambling Rose

[QUOTE=bobd22;10409468]That does sound rather silly and as you say remiss of your solicitor. You would think they would have some sort of time allowance to enable you to become resident. I have a friend who got a letter similar to yourself, but they took about 18 months to obtain residency. I have tried to explain that ignoring the letter may come back and bite him? but he "knows better!". The none residents tax is also going up a little bit from next year I believe?[/QUOTE

I think they are bound to catch up with your friend. The letter arrived needing a signature so the tax authorities know who has received them and so who has chosen to ignore them.

VFR

So in essence Spain will tax a second home owner with the assumption that the property is rented out, regardless if it is or not & it take it there is no appeal ?

Bit like issuing all vehicle owners a parking ticket on thassumptionon that the vehicle waillegallyly parked at some stage.

No I am not a second home owner.

Lynn R

Yes, and it has been that way for many years. It amazes me that some people must do absolutely no research before committing themselves to the purchase of a holiday home in Spain, if they claim they didn't know about this. When I was looking into it, every single website I looked at which dealt with buying Spanish properties explained quite clearly what the tax liabilities were for non-resident owners. And when I did eventually buy my solicitor explained it to me all over again.

Chiclanagir

It doesn´t make sense. Surely you could sign a declaration that the house is for your own use and isn´t rented out. That should be sufficient provided you pay your IBI.

johnnyone

But the amount is not great. Ours is 47.62 euros for the year. Apparently our fiscal valium is low. Probably something to with it being an old townhouse (135m2).

jonboy

Aahhh! fiscal valium, now that sounds divine

johnnyone

It costs me more to get the forms filled in and the tax paid at my bank!

rspltd

The tax is a nonsense - apart from being discriminatory, the calculations have no solid basis in fact but appear arbitrary. However as has been said, the tax has been around a long time and everyone buying in Spain should have been aware of it. In much the same way everyone who moved to Spain knew they wouldn't get WFA but it didn't stop them whinging and eventually they were succeessful - let's hope the same scenario happens for Non resident tax.

mikelincs

It was in existence when we lived in Spain, 2004 to 2008, BUT there were many people brits living on our urbanisation who didn't know they were liable because they had NEVER become tax resident, they were pensioners, so thought they didn't have to make anay sort of tax return. They had residencia, and were on the padron and got free healthcare, but they just didn't think they needed to do anything else. They got a bit of a shock when we told them it was a legal requirement. Many of those owning houses as holiday homes hadn't realised they were liable also, we told them that they should make a declaration at the hacienda that they didn't rent out their place, and so avoid any taxes that way. People just don't do the research before moving over there, at least people coming onto this site do get the info, whether they choose to take notice is up to them.

bobd22

Yes why not if it's their debt