Hacienda

Hi, does anybody know how long it can take to refund the 3% from the Hacienda on the sale of a property Costa blanca area.

And why do the Hacienda hold 3% if all your taxes are up to date?

Thanks

Not sure on the time scale.

A Simple rule to follow

Withholding tax: If the seller is nonresident, then the buyer must withhold 3% of the agreed price (regardless of whether the buyer is resident or not), using Form 211 to pay this 3% to the tax office. The buyer then provides the nonresident seller with a copy of the form, so that the seller may deduct this withholding from the tax payable in the return declaring the capital gain. If the amount withheld exceeds tax payable, the excess is refundable. If the tax withheld is not paid, the liability for the tax is attached to the property.

Hi Goldie - it can take about 6 - 10 months. 

The reason they take the 3% is to check whether or not you owe any money to the government.  It takes them that amount of time to find out whether or not you owe anything, and then work out if you are due a refund.  Your lawyer should push them to refund the money as quickly as possible, but things take time here and sometimes there is nothing much you can do other than wait!

Hi, thank you both for your replys,

In Malaga it's also now taking up to 12 months whereas it used to be possible to secure within 3 months.

The tax office claim they have no staff available to process refunds!!

To speed matters up you should ensure all supporting documentation is submitted with the return and that you are up to date with all earlier years non-resident tax returns.

I can't say that popping in and out makes seems to make any difference becuase all you get is stories.

In the odd case the tax office reject the refund becuase they re-value the sale based on similar properties listed on fotocasa.com(they don't seem to look at the Junta de Andalucia minimum acceptable value!) and then write back saying instead of a refund you owe them EUR??,???. You are then faced with the decision to appeal or walk away. Walking away is only an option if you have no other assets (cash or property) in Spain. This more applies to unusual type transactions and very much so if the transaction is not clean (ie permuta/exchange etc).

Their argument is just because you decided to sell cheaply should not mean they also lose out on tax

A rather nasty bunch if you ask me!