Talk Quesada forum

Advice needed please if possible.

We have received an email from our lawyer to advise that they have received a letter from the tax office with a tax value of our recently purchased property. The letter states that our house has been valued quite a bit higher than what we paid for it and that they require the tax from us on the difference, amounting to just under €3000.

Our lawyer said she can try and appeal against this but the appeal would cost us €500. We have emailed her back asking what our chances are of winning but has anyone else had to deal with this?

We are annoyed at having to pay the extra tax of course but also that we weren't warned that this could happen.

Angela17 wrote:Advise needed please if possible.

We have received an email from our lawyer to advise that they have received a letter from the tax office with a tax value of our recently purchased property. The letter states that our house has been valued quite a bit higher than what we paid for it and that they require the tax from us on the difference, amounting to just under €3000.

Our lawyer said she can try and appeal against this but the appeal would cost us €500. We have emailed her back asking what our chances are of winning but has anyone else had to deal with this?

We are annoyed at having to pay the extra tax of course but also that we weren't warned that this could happen.

It's been discussed many times. Your property has an official value with the land registry. If you buy and pay tax on a property which is lower than they have it valued at, they can hit you with an extra transfer tax for the difference.
This is because, in the past, many sellers took a large deposit in cash and the remainder became the declared value.
Unfair? Yes, it is. Can you fight it? Yes you can but be aware of the short time period in which you can do it and make sure you have all bank statements etc to show how much you paid and to show you didn't have a large amount taken out of your account around the same time.
Is it worth it? Up to you, really. You might find a lot of hassle but, if you win, you'll have the good feeling of beating the cheats. On the other hand, you can take satisfaction that the house is worth €30,000 more than you paid for it (according to hacienda).
I believe they can go back up to 4 years to get this tax off you.
They call it a complementary tax.

I believe the so called complentary tax was declared Illegal by the EU and was no longer being asked for

jpeg wrote:I believe the so called complentary tax was declared Illegal by the EU and was no longer being asked for

If only that were so but yet another rumour, unfortunately. And I was told it was the Valencian supreme court that ruled it "illegal" but, according to Abaco, again not.
People are still being asked for it, witness this latest post.

Marcliff, are you aware please if anyone has appealed and what their outcome was?

Yes, I know of four people who appealed. Two were told it was too late. One other stopped half way through as it was becoming expensive (bills kept coming in and as the amount was only 1500 euro then it was becoming unproductive) and the other won the case though it was for 12000 euro so worth doing.
Abaco solicitors reckon they have been successful in many cases. Perhaps give them a ring.

Edited to add. Be aware that you only have one month in which to appeal this bill.

Hi,
As marcliff mentioned there is some information on the Abaco website. Here's a couple of articles that may help:

http://www.abacoadvisers.com/spain-expl ... entary-tax

http://www.abacoadvisers.com/spain-expl ... tax-buying

Many thanks for all your help. We are going to speak to our lawyer tomorrow to see if it is worth appealing.

Really helpful site, thank you Jan.

More than 6 months later I now have the result of our appeal on the above tax. Thankfully we did win and no longer need to pay the €3000 So worth the appeal.

Angela17 wrote:More than 6 months later I now have the result of our appeal on the above tax. Thankfully we did win and no longer need to pay the €3000 So worth the appeal.

Always good to hear how these things went.