Value Added Tax

Taxing a rent free commercial property

Picture the scene: with youth unemployment in Spain currently hovering around the 50 per cent mark for under 25s (source Eurostat), you decide to give your son a helping hand by letting him set up business in an empty shop you happen to own. As he is your child and you don’t need the money, … Read more

Property owning companies: Don’t trust the bar stool experts!

Those of you who have lived in Spain for many years will probably have been regaled in the past with tales of how people had managed to escape tax liabilities by buying their properties through ‘holding companies’. In fact such ‘bar stool experts’ offering dubious advice still exist—although it is highly doubtful that they are … Read more

Spain’s new VAT cash accounting regime – Or, how to turn a good idea into a bad one

When I heard that Spain was bringing in a new VAT cash accounting system, I was stunned. The first thought: how very progressive for Spain. However, then I read the law and how it will work, I quickly changed my mind, it would seem that the lawyers and governmental bureaucrats who wrote the law just … Read more

New tax incentives for property purchase in Spain

A few weeks ago the Spanish Government introduced another important tax incentive for property purchasers in a bid to kick start the moribund property market and help the banks get rid of their stock of repossessed properties. It is worth comparing Spain’s property tax incentives to the massive French tax increases on foreign property owners. … Read more

Will Rajoy Have What it Takes After the Spanish Elections on Sunday?

Election day on Sunday 20th November should produce a dramatic change in Government for Spain. But what will this mean? On Sunday, the Partido Popular, the centre right political party is expected to romp home with an overall majority of the 350 member Congress of Deputies, Spain’s lower legislative house. The newspapers predict that the … Read more

Possible Revolutionary New VAT Law for Small Businesses

There is a new proposal for a substantial change in VAT law that will allow small scale self employed businesses and companies to pay VAT on their real sales income. All the political parties have backed a proposed change in law to modify the current VAT law for smaller self employed businesses and companies, so … Read more

Tax Office Fights Against Tax Evasion

The Spanish Government intends to approve a number of changes in legislation to strengthen the tax office’s armoury against the black economy and tax fraud. They propose to modify the Penal Code so that substantial tax fraud may be penalised with up to 6 years (currently four years) in jail. In the Spanish system ‘substantial … Read more