As Faro mentions, there are two different tax issues covered in this post:
- one issue is the Transfer Tax payable by the purchaser of a property when it is bought from a private person as opposed to a real estate developer, trader or other business (in the latter case the IVA and not the Transfer Tax would be the applicable tax). The tax base is not the price paid for the property as some seem to believe but rather "the real value". This is probably based on the very extended habit of underreporting the price paid or paying part in b money. Therefore when the tax authorities find a difference between reported price and the value they have in their system, the re-assess the tax to the higher amount.
It is true that the values in the system no longer correspond to the real value of the properties so appealing against the re-assessment is a good idea but you would have to produce good evidence that the value is in fact lower. If you have access to such good evidence, by all means appeal against the re-assessment and you will probably get it revoked. Of course, getting this evidence will cost money and some consideration should be given as to whether it is worthwhile to go for it.
- another issues is the Capital Gains Tax payable by the seller of a property. The tax base is the difference between the purchase price and selling price modified by different calculations depending on the circumstances.
When the seller is a tax resident of Spain, the seller has to file the tax return and pay the CGT. The purchaser is not required to do anything but verify that the seller is in fact a tax resident, If the seller is not a tax resident, then the purchaser is required to retain 3% of the purchase price (5% in earlier years) based on the price paid. The tax base for this retention is the purchase price, not the real value. If the evidence of tax residency cannot be produced, the tax authorities will conclude that the seller is non-resident and as such the retention should have been made.
To appeal against this conclusion you would have to produce evidence that the seller was in fact a tax resident of Spain and this, again might prove difficult and costly, if time has passed and the original seller is no longer available.
Rod, unbelievable as it may look, some sellers are still obtaining capital gains, the main reason being that properties purchased a long time ago can still be sold for a higher price than at the time of purchase.
Ads, in the scenario described, the legal owner is still the seller. it looks to me as if the Escritura has not been sighed because the purchaser refused to complete until the 14.000 euro lien is removed from the property and, of course, this will take some time to sort out. If the purchaser has access to the property it is probably because the seller consented to this. It is perhaps a good way to make sure that completion in fact eventually takes place and the purchaser does not walk away from the purchase and demand the deposit back.
I hope I have heldped in clarifying the issues.