{"id":607,"date":"2012-01-05T13:56:01","date_gmt":"2012-01-05T12:56:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lawbird.com\/wordpress\/?p=607"},"modified":"2014-05-05T19:06:07","modified_gmt":"2014-05-05T18:06:07","slug":"fighting-back-against-property-tax-in-spain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lawbird.com\/wordpress\/fighting-back-against-property-tax-in-spain\/","title":{"rendered":"Fighting back against property tax in Spain"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/h1>\n\n\n\n\n
\"Fighting<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\u2022\u00a0DAVE AND PHILIPPA STATON FELL VICTIM TO A SURPRISE 9,500 EURO BACK TAX<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Dave and Philippa Staton fell victim to a surprise 9,500 euro back tax after buying a two-bedroom apartment in Duquesa.<\/p>\n

It came after the local town hall wrongly applied a \u2018completely unrealistic\u2019 property value on the flat.<\/p>\n

The seven per cent property transfer tax \u2013 that is catching out numerous property buyers around Spain \u2013 is levied not on the actual price paid but on values set by the town hall often many years earlier.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese are usually well out of date and completely unfair,\u201d explained Phillipa Staton, 44, a software developer from the West Midlands.<\/p>\n

Now, on appeal, the couple have had the bill reduced to just 60 euros.<\/p>\n

The problem has emerged as the inland revenue (Hacienda) has set minimum sale prices for tax purposes, despite property prices plummeting everywhere.<\/p>\n

It means many unsuspecting buyers later receiving an additional bill for the difference PLUS interest for late payment.<\/p>\n

\u201cThree months after the sale was completed Hacienda demanded another 9,500 euros, and we went into a panic\u201d explained Staton.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe valuation was ridiculously high and we were paying the same as someone who has a two bed villa.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo we paid for an official evaluation and it came back that we should only pay 300 euros more, which was close to what we had actually paid so in the end the bill was just 60 euros.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to lawyer Roberto Sanchez<\/strong> from Marbella-based Lawbird<\/strong> it is a growing problem.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt has become a big issue with the recession, particularly here on the Costa del Sol which has one of the highest values in Spain,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe valuations are based on prices from a few years ago and with the current climate it has become ridiculous.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe valuations should fall to match the fact that prices have changed but it is beneficial to the town halls as they get more money.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is absolutely scandalous. Some are charging thousands of euros extra tax and people think that it isn\u2019t worth getting a lawyer to fight it but it can be.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A BRITISH couple have fought off an \u2018extortionate\u2019 property tax that threatens to put potential investors off buying in Spain.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1311,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[59,75],"class_list":["post-607","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lawbird-in-the-media","tag-lawbird","tag-roberto-sanchez"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lawbird.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/607","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lawbird.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lawbird.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lawbird.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lawbird.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=607"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.lawbird.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/607\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1312,"href":"https:\/\/www.lawbird.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/607\/revisions\/1312"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lawbird.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1311"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lawbird.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=607"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lawbird.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=607"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lawbird.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=607"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}