Holiday let clampdown

 Hi goodstitch44, It is early days for me so far as we only bought end of October 2008. However, I'm happy to tell you what I've encountered so far in terms of costs. We have a quad villa in Playa Flamenca. Urbanisation fees, that seems to cover swiming pool, grounds maintenance street cleaning and lighting in the urbanisation costs 240 Euros a year. I understand this is much cheaper than a lot of others. No gas, electric should cost around 20 Euros a month. However, they seem to take what they want. According to my calculations its 6 Euros a month standing charge and 2 Euros a day seems to be our usage. When we are not there I turn the mains off. Water seems to cost 60 Euros a quarter that seems to include rubbish. House and contents insurance came to 160 Euros for the year. Then there seems to be this renta tax for non residents which works out at 480 Euros per annum for a place of 100,000 Euros.

To summarise

Urbanisation 20 per month, Electrcity 20 per month, water 20 Euros a month, insurance say 15 Euros a month, renta tax 40 Euros a month total 115 Euros. We have only been there about 5 weeks since we bought the place. Hope this helps.  

Hi kev2006n

thanks for that. That sounds good. I thought community charges would be far higher? 

Hope you get the taxes all sorted out with your solicitor.

 Hi goodstitch 44,

I think it depends on the urbanisation. We have friends paying over 500 Euros per year. It just depends on the facilities and the size of the urbanisation. I think Costa Blanca seems cheaper than other areas. Where are you thinking of buying? Kevin

Hi kevin

we are not thinking of buying, but some friends are looking at the idea. Either Spain or Turkey?

 Hi all you also have to pay the  ibito the town hall ( similar to your rates/council tax) about 150/200 euros a year.Pat.

Hi,

The reason we were all charged with the wealth tax was because apartment owners were not declaring their income to the relevant authorities, so the rest of us that were not renting their apartments were unfairly landed with the charge. (which as a non renter I have paid for the last six years)  However the wealth tax has now allegedly been abolished so now I have become a resident hopefully I will only pay the IBI and the Basura. With regards to the community charges, where I am it costs us 1200 euros per annum, and at the moment we have an extra payment on top of that for the painting of the community buildings to include our private terraces halls and stairwells and all exterior walls ofl the buildings. You cannot put a figure on community payments because they differ within each community, and we are at the Costa del Sol so may be we are dearer here who knows.

regards to all 

we have the ubiquiotos 2 bed 2 bath apartment..we reckon with community charges €1400 pa IBi about €600 , renta tax ..about €400 electric and water we wont be alot south of €3000 pa...

I bought in October 2003 and have been paying Wealth tax and Income tax (La renta) since that date. 

The combined amount I paid each year are as follows.  This was originally calculated on 100k but after a couple of years the Ayunmiento decided to increase the value of properties so you will see a rise in value.

June 2004 - 221.04, June 2005 - 254.06, June 2006 - 323.49, June 07 - 325.92, June 08 - 328.41.

This year I will only be paying Income tax (La renta) and  I'm still waiting to see how much this will be.  Once my account has been debited I'll let you know.

kev2006n
Then there seems to be this renta tax for non residents which works out at 480 Euros per annum for a place of 100,000 Euros.

Hopefully the above figures will allay peoples fear, I believe the bulk of the money deducted each year was for Wealth Tax and a much smaller amount was deducted for La Renta.

As someone posted earlier La Renta was bought in some time ago because people were renting out their properties and not declaring them.  Therefore we all have to pay now.  Wealth tax was paid by anyone who owned a property, not just non-residents.  Originally when the tax was abolished it was still going to apply to non-residents but this was over-ruled.

In most cases the amount being paid in tax will be less than the fee charged by the fiscal agent.  I pay 85e a year so this will propably be the last year I will use and agent and like a lot of people I'll be completing my own form next year.

Have just been reading about community charges in some parts (circa €1400) ouch!  They are just talking about putting up the fees on our community by about €40 a quarter because both of our pools need attention - but the community charge on 2/3 bedroomed houses here is €118 per quarter! -   Paid €180,000 for my place nearly 5 years ago, but as prices have been in free-fall, don't know what it is currently worth, and even if this fact is taken into account.

 Could someone tell me when the IBi tax is charged. I didn't know about that. How often is it charged. I seem to pay for rubbish collection with my water charge, surely that is carried out by the town? 

 IBI is an annual tyax which accrues the 1st in January. Some Local councils charge it in two instalments along the year ( January-June)

Best,

Maria

Maria

Hopefully you have read the threads regarding the holiday let clampdown with taxes and fines etc. can you let me know what the legal side of all this is. We know a lot of owners that could do with some clarfication. regards Pat

Dear Pat:

every region in Spain have different regulations for touristic apartments and holiday homes. As an advise I would encourage you to look for a lawyer to check on the requirements stablished by your region and submitt to them. No big deal, in many cases, just a communication regarding the fact that that your apartment  is being rented to the tourist market is enough.

Requisites ( for those region with regulation already in place) are not very strict. Getting into legalities is better for all at the end of the day.

We would be pleased to advise you on your particular region/ specific requisited in you need it.

Best regards,

Maria

Hi Maria

Many thanks for that. Our owners are all in Almerimar (Almeria) If you could check for me please that would be very good. Thankyou again. If there is a charge for this service please let me know. Pat G

Provision 43 of  Tourism Act 12/1999  catalogues as holiday homes those ones which offer just lodging services and are offered to the general public for its temporal use with touristic aims once or more a year.

The only legal requirement for these houses is that they need to be furnished and have the necessary home goods for its inmediate use, according to provision 45 of same Act.

The national Act, refers to future regulations by regions, which in the case of Andalucia has not been done yet. Just Rural houses are under regional regulations in Andalucia so far by a Regional decree dated 2002.

So right now, the only obligation is that of communicating but there is no licensing requisites in place yet.
artículo.44 Ley 12/1999, de 15 de diciembre, del Turismo.

 kev2006n
Could someone tell me when the IBi tax is charged. I didn't know about that. How often is it charged.

On the Costa Blanca IBI is paid yearly in September and is paid by the person who was the legal owner of the property on January 1st.  The bill is prepared in August and sent to either your house or your Bank if a direct debit has been set up.  You have until the 2/3 October to pay it after that date penalty interest accrues.

If you have bought a new property then it can take a couple of years before you will start paying IBI.  As you've calculated how much it is I'd leave that amount in your bank account so the funds will be there for when the accrued bill arrives.

I seem to pay for rubbish collection with my water charge, surely that is carried out by the town? 

Don't know why it's paid with the water bill but it is.  I think I pay 9e, 4.50 a month for a daily collection, what a bargain. 

On Costa Del Sol I believe it's paid annually and you pay the Ayunmiento.

On the Costa Blanca the bills for IBI and Car Tax bills are prepared by a separate company called SUMA. 

 semijublida, Thanks for your reply. We went to Spain before I saw your reply and you are right. We went and paid the 'La Renta ' Tax on form 210. As we had the place for only 61 days last year our total charge was Euros 6.55. That's right 6 and will be about 38 for a full year. 

My solicitor confirmed that I will be chrged IBI in August and will be paid in September, everything is set up in my bank account.

I think most people on the Costa Blanca, Torrevieja area anyway, haven't understood what they are paying for with the water charge and I have had many an argument last week! There seems to be an awful lot of experts around that know nothing!!!

Now I hope, are you an expert on buying a car in Spain or using a UK one as you were right on everything else!

In reply to Johnspc,

I think you have got the date wrong (Jan 2009) I assume you are talking about the wealth tax which has supposedly been abolished now.  this has been going on for a few years, like you we have never let our apartment it was ours for when we retired (Nov. 12th 2008 over here for good and very happy) so we have been paying ours since we bought in 2003, and as I mentioned on a previous thread this was because rental income was not being declared by property owners.

 Johnspc, maybe I'm totally wrong and out of date, but as far as I know, this isn't a new tax - we've always (for the last few years at least) been aware that non-residents were subject to a tax on their property based on the belief that they are renting it out.

As far as I know, this isn't a new tax.

Edited to say:  crossed posts with 1962, obviously saying the same thing!