Over the years, we have seen from our office how the Spanish tax office has improved its channels of cooperation with other European tax agencies to the extent that they now share all kinds of information about their respective taxpayers.
This cooperation was limited so far to the prosecution of real estate registered in public inventories in Spain under the name of taxpayers of other countries who had debts in the stage of execution owed to their corresponding state treasury. The Spanish tax office acted as a debt collector to recover the foreign debt, which remained unpaid by the taxpayer, being resident or not, through an action against his property in Spain.
Now, cooperation between tax agencies is going ahead and is being developed in the framework of management or control processes initiated on the basis of data and indicators provided by foreign tax authorities.
The most common case is the experience of foreign retirees living in Spain, with rents, which are in principle tax free, but who are obligated to declare them due to the progressivity of taxes on personal income. Double taxation agreements between Spain and other countries declare as exempted from payment of tax on personal income in the State of residence the pensions paid from public funds of the other State. Starting from this premise, many foreign pensioners living in Spain considered unnecessary to comply with the obligation to provide an annual declaration of personal income. However, many of these retirees receive income from the rental of real estate or bank interests, which must be declared to the Spanish tax authorities. In addition, most of these retirees supplement their income paid out of funds created by the state with other pensions paid from private funds, which are generally much higher than the amount that is considered exempt. Due to the progressivity of the tax on personal income, the percentage that would correspond to the total income earned by a resident in Spain is the one to be applied to calculate the tax on these other private rents which are not exempted. As a result, the final amount of tax paid to the fiscal authorities may be much higher.
In these difficult times, the Spanish state has resorted to claiming the difference between the amount really paid and the ones that should have been paid. It also requires the respondents to perform their official duties. And all this thanks to the valuable cooperation it receives from foreign fiscal authorities, who once benefited from the pursuit of real estate in Spain to their countrymen.
Carlos Prieto Cid – Lawyer