Spanish Tax on Property!

Polly80

Hi to everyone and apologies if this question is in the wrong section!

My husband and I sold a property in Spain a few years ago and paid 35% tax on the capital gain. We have now been told that because the Spanish only pay 15% on property we may be able to get a refund! A Spanish solicitor was recommended in the Daily Mail to handle the court action against the Spanish Government ( forgot to mention, it's not straight forward), basically the European courts ruled that it was unfair that Spaniards paid 15%, but other Europeans paid 35%. Now to my question has anybody heard anything about this or the solicitors Costa, Alvarez, Manglano & Asociados. P.O. BOX 14.042 Barcelona 08080 – spanishtaxreclaim.co.uk

Any info greatfully received.:j

Cook_County

If you paid 40% in the UK & claimed credit for the Spanish tax will this make a difference at all, or were your UK tax rates below 35%?

Polly80

We did not claim any tax credit here in the UK.

Cook_County

Why not? Surely the gain was taxable & reported here?

ThinkBig_2

Hi Polly80, Glad to know you managed to sell your place in Spain. Just wanted to know how you found the experience of selling out there? Was it pretty straight forward or did it get complicated? I'm trying to sell my villa at the moment and wanted to know other people's experiences. Thanks

krisskross

ThinkBig wrote: »

Hi Polly80, Glad to know you managed to sell your place in Spain. Just wanted to know how you found the experience of selling out there? Was it pretty straight forward or did it get complicated? I'm trying to sell my villa at the moment and wanted to know other people's experiences. Thanks

We sold a place 3 years ago. Totally straightforward. Cost us nothing to sell, private sale.

Attended the notary with the buyer and his legal eagle plus his bank manager as he was taking out a mortgage.

Bank manager handed over loads of Euro in cash......this would have been the undeclared part of the price and the rest was a Euro cheque drawn on the bank.

Nothing for us to do really except sign on the dotted line.

It was our only property, we didn't have one here in the UK. Because we had residency in Spain we didn't have the 5% deducted from the selling price that non residents had at the time. Don't know if things have changed since then.

Cook_County

krisskross wrote: »

We sold a place 3 years ago. Totally straightforward. Cost us nothing to sell, private sale.

Attended the notary with the buyer and his legal eagle plus his bank manager as he was taking out a mortgage.

Bank manager handed over loads of Euro in cash......this would have been the undeclared part of the price and the rest was a Euro cheque drawn on the bank.

Nothing for us to do really except sign on the dotted line.

It was our only property, we didn't have one here in the UK. Because we had residency in Spain we didn't have the 5% deducted from the selling price that non residents had at the time. Don't know if things have changed since then.

I find it curious that you admit on an open public forum that you evaded tax in Spain. Did you also evade tax in the UK? How did you launder the cash you received as proceeds of your criminal conspiracy to evade tax? Have you considered that tax evasion could land you in jail here in the UK?

Polly80

Hi Thinkbig,

The process was very easy. We had a very good agent who handled everything for us. Our soilicitor had Power of Attorney, so we left them to it.

Polly80

Cook_County wrote: »

Why not? Surely the gain was taxable & reported here?

Yes it was declared in the UK! You would have to ask our Uk accountant why no more tax was due.

Back to my question, has anyone heard anything about this Spanish tax reclaim?

Thanks.

krisskross

Cook_County wrote: »

I find it curious that you admit on an open public forum that you evaded tax in Spain. Did you also evade tax in the UK? How did you launder the cash you received as proceeds of your criminal conspiracy to evade tax? Have you considered that tax evasion could land you in jail here in the UK?

We didn't evade tax in Spain. There was no tax liability as we sold for less than we had paid.

Neither did we avoid tax here. Unless of course there is a tax liability when you sell the only home you have at a loss.

The proceeds of the sale went into a High Street Bank who asked for proof of where the money originated. Obviously we could provide that. So no attempt to hide the money.

Do you still think we are going to Jail?

Cook_County

If you told your UK accountant the same story you typed here you will already have been reported to the Serious Organized Crimes Office as you conspired to aid others evade tax. It was a foolish choice to have made. You may wish to take legal advice.