Capital Gains Tax from sale of property

Sold our property in Spain in Dec 2009 for which we had to give the purchaser 3% of the purchase price for Capital Gains Tax.  Over a year later we have still not received our refund and have recently been told by our solicitor / accountant that the tax law regarding CGT in Spain changed in January this year and they are no longer refunding any CGT.  We find this very hard to believe and are finding it difficult to get answers back here in the UK.  Has anyone heard anything about this or can offer any advice as to how we can back our CGT after 16 months?

The 3% held back  is not cgt and its nothing to do with the guy that bought your property. 3% is held back by the tax man in case you owe any taxes.Capital Gains Tax  is about 16% i think and you  would only pay that if you made any profit from the sale of your property. i got my 3% back after 18months.

Sorry, didn't word it very well.  We are aware of what you said.  We have a figure of the amount we are owed from our accountant which she claimed in January 2010.  On querying how much longer we were to wait for this money, we were told that the Tax Man is no longer giving refunds for CGT from January this year as the government can no longer afford it.  Unfortunately she didn't know whether as our claim was before January 2011 we would get our refund or not.

I think the explanation has been lost in translation.

The law has not changed but it is true the tax office are not processing refunds.

They claim they have no available staff to even log the claims on to their system.

But eventually if you harrass them enough they will process but I would guess at the moment it will take up to 1 year or longer and we were gettng CGT refunds processed with 3 - 4 months.

To avoid repaying the refund the tax office might substitute a higher deemed price to eliminate any refund due. 

I hope to pop into Malaga tax office this week to chase up a few just to let them know we are still around etc and it might move the file on a bit.

But if you own them any money you better pay within the permitted time frame or they will take your house!

I keep meaning to find out if they have a customer charter but somehow I doubt it.

So just sit back and wait and wait and wait ......... and wait .....

Hi - I read in one of the local papers recently that Capital Gains Tax was going to rise, but now can´t find the article! 

Does anyone know if this is true and, if it is, when it is due to rise and by how much?

Thanks