Save money in your purchase of property in Spain

If you are interested in buying a home, you better do it before December 31, 2012, or you it will cost more.

On January 1, 2013 come into force some changes that you should consider:

VAT rise from 4% to 10%

The housing tax that was established in the mid 4% last year, just at the end of this year, going to tax the purchase of new housing at the reduced rate of 10%. The 6% difference in the rate of tax is a lot of money when it comes to shopping so significant. For example, if we acquire by the end of the year a house worth € 200,000, will pay € 8,000 in total taxes, while if purchased from January 1, 2013 will pay € 20,000, ie, we will have a tax savings € 12,000 by the change in VAT.

 In Houses under construction , the obligation of paying the vat starts at the time of the advance payment we made to the promoter. Therefore, if we can not transfer the property by Notarial deed before year-end, because it is not ended , make advanced payments to the maximum extent possible. In this way, you save 6% of all you make advance payments before 31 December. 

Also, remember that:

The reduced VAT rate of 4% applies to all properties that can be used as a dwelling, regardless of the use to which it is put. The autonomous benefit from reduced VAT for the purchase of an apartment or rental office.

This tax also applies to parking spaces that are purchased together with housing for up to two.

Does not apply reduced VAT rates to local, or land.

And if you buy second hand:

Purchasing a second-hand housing to an individual or through a real estate agency, the VAT increase will not therefore affect the tax paid on the purchase is the Property Transfer (ITP), between 7% and 8%, depending on your region.

Neither will be affected most floors selling financial institutions. The reason is that you only pay VAT on the purchase of new housing, in the case of transmission of the house. In most of the floors of the bank, the first transmission has already been given, the Promoter to the bank, so even in the house yet no one has ever lived, in order to Hacienda no longer considered new and therefore , purchase involves the payment of ITP.

Elimination of deduction for house purchase

Being resident in Spain, the tax saving is € 1356, 15% of all annual payments of the purchase and financing up to a maximum of 9,040 euros per return. So that, to declare a marriage individually, the deduction can reach € 2,712 between the two (15% of € 9,040 each).

Exemption of 50% of the profit on a sale

All urban properties purchased between 12/05/2012 and 31/12/2012 are exempt (when sold) 50% of the gain, both in income tax for residents, non-residents and corporations IRNR.

This tax benefit is less known, perhaps because it is not as immediate as the VAT, but as the economy is, you never know when you're going to have to sell the properties, either because they can not afford to pay or by any otherwise, change of residence, marriage, etc..

Continuing the example above, if the home purchase € 200,000 sell it in 2013 for 210,000 €, ignoring the costs to avoid complicating the example, we have a gain of € 10,000 of which € 5,000 exempt (50%) and therefore pay € 1,050 in income (21% of the 5,000 € not exempt). However, if the house we bought in 2013 and later sell, capital gains are taxed at the progressive scale ranging from 21% to 27%

Javier Herrera Llamas