New campaign of the Tax Agency to demand the payment of income tax to non-residents

Even if they are fiscally non-resident, owners of real estate in Spain must file a separate income tax return each year and pay the so-called income tax for non-residents (IRNR) for revenues earned from the property .

The Spanish state tax authorities have not been very demanding until now regarding the payment of income tax to fiscally non-resident property owners. Many homeowners are not aware of the existence of this tax liability and can not understand why they have to file a tax return and pay this tax in Spain, despite the fact that they are not getting any income. They come to Spain just to spend their holidays: they do not work, they do not receive interest income from cash deposits in the bank, they do not rent their property. However, the mere possession of a property in Spain, as in other European countries, is considered by the law as income, even if the property is not rented. State tax rules require that the owner gets benefit of his own real estate anyway, even though these objects are not leased. The only exceptions are the cases in which the property is one’s own domicile or if the property is devoted to economic activity. Both cases can never happen with non-residents.

There is another tax, the municipal tax on property ownership, the so-called IBI (Spanish Impuesto Sobre Bienes Inmuebles), the payment of which the local municipality requires to property owners each year, and which is calculated and declared by the administration itself. In contrast, in the case of the state income tax for non-residents – IRNR-, the tax inspection is not mandated to prepare tax returns for the non-residents, but it is the taxpayer himself who is required to provide an annual tax return, and calculate and pay the property taxes on its own initiative.

This month, many homeowners who spend their holidays in their own apartments or private homes in Spain, received a letter from the Spanish tax authorities, reminding of the existence of the tax on the income of non-residents and the obligationy of paying it. Earlier, the state tax agency was very generous regarding this tax. Now, however, given that the economic situation is so bad, it appears that IRS has become stricter, requiring submission of tax returns and payment of this tax by all non-residents who own property in Spain.

Carlos Prieto Cid – Lawyer

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If I change my residence to Spain, what should I do with my car?

If you are used to walk around the urbanizations in the Spanish coast, you realize that there are plenty of cars with foreign number plates parked for months or even years at the entrance of the house of their owners. All these vehicles are in an irregular situation, which may cause a complaint and have as a result a significant administrative fine for smuggling.

The change of residence has very important consequences in daily life. One of them is the legal situation in which our car will be: a car registered in a foreign country can only circulate legally in Spain during several months. Beyond that deadline, we are required to register it in Spain, following the procedures provided for each case.

Due to the current economic situation the Spanish administration exhausts all possible ways to raise revenue. Nowadays we are detecting an unusual activity of the police inspection, chasing offenses with which the state previously was more tolerant. That’s why resident foreigners, who have maintained in Spain for years without any problems their old cars registered in their home country without worrying about legalizing them, are now very often facing heavy fines and administrative complaints because of this offense.

The vehicle legalization due to a change of residence is a very complicated process, in which different administrations are involved without any coordination between them. If our home country is not a member of the European Economic Community, as in the case of Switzerland or Russia, we must formalize import customs formalities before the car can be tested by the official stations of roadworthiness. In addition, if the vehicle was not marketed in the European Economic Community, we will not have the necessary certificate of conformity, and we will have to instruct an authorized inspector to report on its technical specifications. This requires high costs which, added to the administration fees and the necessary management costs, can make the legalization economically unviable, depending on the situation and the age of the vehicle. However, we can not forget that to unsubscribe a vehicle or to test its roadworthiness can only be made in the country of registration. That means that we should return to the country of origin with the vehicle, if we decide not to legalize it into Spain. In any case, if we are denounced, the fines or the risk to be prosecuted for smuggling can have a much higher cost.

Carlos Prieto Cid, Lawyer

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If I rent my holiday house in Spain, what kind of taxes should I pay?

Most tourists who visit Spain choose for their accommodation a holiday flat or a holiday home. If we own a property in Spain and we want to rent it during the touristic season to others, we must know what taxes we are required to pay to the Spanish public finances.

The most common situation is that we rent a holiday home for a period of time not longer than three months. In this case, the income from the leasing of this property will always be considered property income and must be included in the annual declaration of our income tax. The expenses necessary to maintain the holiday home and for its promotion in the touristic market will be deductible from this declared revenues, but only if these expenses are billed in the time period in which the holiday house or apartment is leased to a third party. Nevertheless, we must not forget that even in periods when the holiday homes are not rented, they generate anyway revenues that must be declared according to the income tax regulations. That is because the Spanish tax laws regard as property income the mere possession of a property that is not used as regular residence, also when it is not leased. This fictitious revenue is the amount that results from applying a small percentage to the cadaster value of the property, a target value that established by public finance authorities under certain valuation rules. During these periods of time when the property is not rented, no deduction of expenses allowed.

Presenting an annual statement of the income tax of individuals to the Spanish Tax Office is mandatory for all owners of property in Spain, if this dwelling is not officially considered the regular residence. This means that all owners of a holiday home in Spain, whether resident or non-resident, whether or not renting it, are anyway required to file annually with this statement. Many foreign owners are not aware of this obligation. They think everything is solved, when paying the community tax (called IBI) and they oft forget to pay this compulsory income tax.
Despite all this, holiday house renting could be considered an economic activity and would have to be declared as such according to the income tax regulations when entered into under the following circumstances:

  •   There is at least one room dedicated exclusively for the management of the activity.
  •   There is at one full-time person hired to work in the development of the activity.

Everything we have said refers to income tax of individuals. With regard to the added value tax, the general rule is that renting of holiday home is considered tax-exempt as long as the landlord is not required to provide any of the services of the hotel industry, such as cleaning the dwelling and changing the bed linen and towels at least once a week. However, we must clarify that although we rent the house only for one week, the law does not consider as complementary services of the hotel industry both cleaning the inside of the apartment and changing its bed linen and towels at the time of the check-in and the check-out of the period hired by each tenant, as well as cleaning the common areas of the building and the technical assistance services for repairs and maintenance of plumbing, electrical, glass, blinds, locks and appliances.

Carlos Prieto Cid, Lawyer

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