Talk Quesada forum

Hi
Wondered if anyone can offer any advise. We purchased our villa nearly 3 years ago. This week we received a tax notification to say that our villa has now been revalued and we owe 2600 euros more in tax on top of what we paid when we purchased the villa. Very shocked. Is this normal. What is best way forward please.
regards
Sam

The land registry has a list of values of properties. If you have had a bill for €2600 then they reckon you paid €26,000 under the market value.
Now, it used to be the "norm" in Spain that buyers would pay a certain amount in cash to the seller and thus avoid the amount of tax to be paid (the so-called black money). The hacienda is trying to cut down on this hence the list of values they have. They can also go back 4 years to reclaim tax from the buyers.
I was under the impression that this extra tax had been declared illegal by the Valencia supreme court but, like all things, the hacienda has probably ignored this.
You need to challenge this assessment fairly quickly. If you have all the details on what you paid, including bank statements to show you didn't make another large withdrawal before buying, then you can challenge it.
You should contact a solicitor and work out if the cost of challenging it would be worth doing. The solicitor will charge you for doing it and will expect a certain percentage of any money recovered. If the challenge fails, you will still end up with the solicitors' fee.
Once the hacienda turns down the appeal (which they will automatically) then you (or your solicitor) need to appoint an official valuer (at your cost, of course) and if the valuer puts the property at no more than 10% of the cost you paid then that should be an end to it. If not, you will still have to pay the €2600 on top of the solicitor and valuer's charges.
Pain in the neck and the hacienda doesn't seem to appreciate that prices have gone down since 2008.

thank you so much for taking the time to reply. We not permanent in Spain (plan to be in another year when retire) and not back till Christmas so really unsure what to do. Whether to just pay so it goes away. But very unfair.

You will find that is too late. You have to appeal the bill within 10 days and point out any factual errors such as the price paid. Once you have received the "how to pay" letter, you have one month to lodge any objections.
Not much time allowed and, I agree, it is unfair.

This link to Abaco explains it but it is quite old so the amount of 7% ITP no longer applies and should be 10%.
Complementary Tax

Marcliff makes some good points and you certainly should challenge this immediately because the reassessments can be fought successfully and it’s no small amount that they’re asking for. A good lawyer with experience of this would normally take all the hard work for you, so there’s little for you to do except provide suitable information as they request, to prove your point on value. They will charge a fee, however they normally wouldn’t expect a share of anything they save you, or any tax they manage to reclaim for you. If this is the case, I’d go to a different lawyer. As for a recommendation on who could fix this quickly and effociently, at a low price, I’d speak to Silvia at SGM Abogados in Benijofar. She does all my legal work and I know she has challenged and reclaimed these taxes previously, so has the knowledge needed. Best of all, in my experience, you can leave such issues with her and she will work it all out for you, without you having to do anything, which is an ideal world.
Good luck and I hope you get this sorted.