Tax modification affecting property taxations with effective application from January 2022 onwards

As of next January the 1st 2022, the way to calculate the tax base of the ITP, the Estate and Inheritance tax will be linked to the reference value of the Cadastre

As per the new law “Orden HFP/1104/2021, of 7th October 2021”:

From January 2022 onwards, the way to calculate the taxable base of taxes on Wealth, Inheritance and Donations (ISD) and Patrimonial Transmissions (ITP) will be linked to the reference value of the Cadastre, different from the cadastral value, and it will come from the results of the analysis of the prices of all the sales of real estate that are carried out in front of a public notary. We expect a more likely tax increase to be collected by the different autonomous communities.

On January 2022, the tax base of these three taxes will no longer be the real value of the properties, but their market value. And the regulations presume that this is the reference value approved by the General Directorate of the Land Registry. For this reason, it will be the taxpayer who has to demonstrate that said reference value does not correspond to what the property actually has. Therefore, the burden of proof is reversed, and it is imputed to the taxpayer.

It is analyzed that the tax collection of the autonomous communities increases next year

To the extent that until now it has been accepted, without being a priority object of inspection, a theoretical value based on multiplying the cadastral value by a coefficient that used to result, whose significant lower than the real market value.

The reference value will be calculated every year by making an average of the price of the properties by areas of the same municipality, being, therefore, similar to what would be the market value of the property to be transferred.

To avoid possible imbalances or taxes that are too high, the Government has announced that, once these changes are effective, a minorization factor of 0.9 will be established to adjust the valuations as real as possible.

With this adjustment of the tax base, which will affect both rustic properties and urban properties, the payment of the tax may be reduced by up to 10%, in order to try to correct the price differences that mark the Cadastre data.

It will undoubtedly help to index the tax cost to a more real market value. Given that, among other considerations, used property transfers are usually closed for a price lower than the market value”.