Spanish Tax on Property!

antenna

All non-residents paid 35% cgt when selling spanish property,the law changed a couple of years ago following a european court ruling,this was not retrospective.Now everybody pays 18% but residents have tax allowances to reduce or minimise this tax,non-residents can use a inflation index to lower the cgt slightly,but will have a 5% withholding on the total selling price before you recieve the proceeds at the notary's office.
Many so-called financial advisers will tell you that as the european ruling took around 3 years to become spanish law,that,if you sold in these 3 preceding years the new tax rate should apply to you........i know of nobody that has been succesfull in challenging this,but i often read in the spanish ex-pat press that many are trying to reclaim this cgt..........someone is cashing in by advising ex-pats to pay them to try to recover this money

antenna

Cook_County wrote: »

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.

CHILL.......no laws have been broken and no tax has been avoided,if you dont have any useful advice then keep your breath to cool your porridge

letitcomedown

It's perfectly possible to incur a capital gain in Spain but not in the UK, for the simple reason the UK capital gain is based on the change in the value of the asset in pounds, but the Spanish gain is based on the change in Euros. If the pound had gone up against the Euro by 10% at the same time as the value of the house had gone up by 10% in euro terms, it would be worth the same in £s as at purchase.

And of course, the UK CGT allowance of £9k a person.

Cook_County

antenna wrote: »

CHILL.......no laws have been broken and no tax has been avoided,if you dont have any useful advice then keep your breath to cool your porridge

It does not sound as if you are familiar with the Money Laundering Regulation 2007. I suggest that you read these and the guidance produced by the CCAB affiliated bodies and you will understand why this is reportable and indeed the accountant would have been imprisonable if the accountant did not report.