[News] Spain plans 100% tax on non-EU owned homes

[Dave the OAP]

I don’t think so. I have friends with 2nd homes in, have a guess, and I’m haven’t heard them talk about this. I can ask.

I was talking to a guy on holiday last year from dortmund and he was saying that a lot of Germans had to give up their homes due to a tax by their government.

perhaps that was a while ago.

 

[Guinness Boy]

I'm pretty sure the reason this tax is being proposed for non-EU purchasers is because they cannot apply it to EU residents. It doesn't fit in with the freedom of movement provisions.

It's the same general thinking as why Scotland couldn't charge EU residents for university students - they aren't allowed to favour their own residents over other EU residents.

Indeed. So what would have stopped us applying it to non EU residents pre Brexit?

I think it would be a good idea to apply to Russian, Chinese and Middle Eastern billionaires. Not Polish plumbers.

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

I was talking to a guy on holiday last year from dortmund and he was saying that a lot of Germans had to give up their homes due to a tax by their government.

perhaps that was a while ago.

Thinking a bit more, I do recall there was a loop hole closed a few years back. I can’t remember the exact details but it was to do with you being able to somehow offset domestic tax with foreign property purchases. Wealthy Germans were piling into ever more expensive Majorcan villas, it became quite a known thing, and it started to become a piss take. So they stopped it.

 

[Blues Guitarist]

I don't think that is a fact. "Non-resident" refers to anyone that does not have the legal right to live in the country. Buying a house does not confer that right.

"Non-resident" mean someone who is not living there. It's a statement about where you reside, not about legal status.

 

[Weststander]

"Non-resident" mean someone who is not living there. It's a statement about where you reside, not about legal status.

It’s determined by a nation’s laws, in Spain people are classed as non-residents if they live in the country for less than 183 days in a single year.

Spain plans 100% tax for homes bought by non-EU residents

The measure is meant to help tackle the country's housing crisis, the prime minister said.

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[Bakero]

"Non-resident" mean someone who is not living there. It's a statement about where you reside, not about legal status.

I'm pretty sure Sanchez is referring to legal status. If he just said non-EU citizens, it would suggest people from non-member states who have the right to live in Spain would be subject to the tax. Hence he added "non-residents" to make it clear that would not be the case.

 

[Giraffe]

This won’t affect anyone who actually lives there more than half of the time though. Which is most of the British ex pats.

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

This won’t affect anyone who actually lives there more than half of the time though. Which is most of the British ex pats.

True. If you have the right to live there, and do live there, it seems you’ll be fine.

 

[Weststander]

This won’t affect anyone who actually lives there more than half of the time though. Which is most of the British ex pats.

Or anyone who owns their property in Spain already.

 

[clapham_gull]

GB News Headline

British expats in Spain could be hit with 100% property tax due to 'unprecedented' proposal​

GB News Detail

Sánchez said the tax would specifically target non-EU citizens who don't already live in Spain, suggesting current British residents would not be affected

British expats in Spain could be hit with 100% property tax due to 'unprecedented' proposal - what to know

Spain's Prime Minister has confirmed plans to charge non-residents looking to buy property a 100 per cent tax charge which could ruin Britons' expat dreams

www.gbnews.com

 

[Seagull58]

But they won't be affected will they? Because they have dual nationality, or at least should have if they lived there before Brexit. This will surely only affect anyone post Brexit thinking of moving there. And anyway, people from all over the world move there including millions of illegal immigrants. Sure it's aimed at them more than a few leathery Sun readers (not my words). Still, any opportunity to blame everything and anything on Brexit it seems

They are unlikely to have dual nationality but they will, mostly, have Spanish residence. Some of them will not have taken out Spanish residence though, because they spend less than half of each year there.

 

[Seagull58]

I drilled into the figures a bit.

About 130,000 Homes sold to Foreigners a year, as per article, 27,000 of those to Non-EU. So if the UK are buying 10% of the total that's 13,000 or 50% of NON-EU purchases.

I suspect this policy will just make Holiday Homes slightly cheaper for rich Germans/French etc to eagerly take up the slack.

There are about 600,000 property sales in Spain a year, can't see how this policy will be making anymore standard housing stock available to the average Spanish family. Seems to be more about political points scoring then any kind of solution to a housing crises.

Many of the property will be 2bedroom apartments and 3 bedroom houses/townhouses, so right in the sweet spot for Spanish families

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

Many of the property will be 2bedroom apartments and 3 bedroom houses/townhouses, so right in the sweet spot for Spanish families

Probably in Benidorm and Torremolinos though. I can’t imagine too many Spanish families wanting to reside amongst endless cafes selling full English breakfasts, roast dinners and spaghetti bolognese with chips .

 

[hart's shirt]

Ex-pats are overwhelmingly Remainers.

They’re damaged by Brexiteers who live in Blighty.

Quite so.

People should ignore lazy tropes about expats. We're not living in the British Raj with tiffin and exceptionalism. And you've got to moisturize.

Having lived in the ME for 16 years including before and after Brexit, nostalgic patriotism for the home country is often seen in seeing things as they were.

That includes remaining in the EU. Pretty much every Brit that I've come across there still can't believe that those living in Britain voted to leave.

For me and thousands of other British expats, being in the EU is an essential part of being British. We live the connection with other countries every day.

Brexit continues to be both the most astonishing act of economic self-sabotage and also the theft of part of the nation's identity as 'a piece of the continent, a part of the main'.

Britain is paying a heavy price both for its isolationist decision then and for the conspiracy of silence across the house to reverse this catastrophe now.

 

[Weststander]

Quite so.

People should ignore lazy tropes about expats. We're not living in the British Raj with tiffin and exceptionalism. And you've got to moisturize.

Having lived in the ME for 16 years including before and after Brexit, nostalgic patriotism for the home country is often seen in seeing things as they were.

That includes remaining in the EU. Pretty much every Brit that I've come across there still can't believe that those living in Britain voted to leave.

For me and thousands of other British expats, being in the EU is an essential part of being British. We live the connection with other countries every day.

Brexit continues to be both the most astonishing act of economic self-sabotage and also the theft of part of the nation's identity as 'a piece of the continent, a part of the main'.

Britain is paying a heavy price both for its isolationist decision then and for the conspiracy of silence across the house to reverse this catastrophe now.

It is astonishing, I recall being in shock in the early hours after the vote, partly because the TV media at one stage on the night suggested the opposite (Farage looked devastated).

And 9 years ago, before nationalism other than in France had really become ‘a thing’ across western Europe.

The rest of the EU lost out too, ease of access to a major economy inhibited. I occasionally follow the markets and funds, European equities have fallen increasingly behind the nimble and innovative US.

A pointless schism that only benefitted the enemies of Europe.

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

Quite so.

People should ignore lazy tropes about expats. We're not living in the British Raj with tiffin and exceptionalism. And you've got to moisturize.

Having lived in the ME for 16 years including before and after Brexit, nostalgic patriotism for the home country is often seen in seeing things as they were.

That includes remaining in the EU. Pretty much every Brit that I've come across there still can't believe that those living in Britain voted to leave.

For me and thousands of other British expats, being in the EU is an essential part of being British. We live the connection with other countries every day.

Brexit continues to be both the most astonishing act of economic self-sabotage and also the theft of part of the nation's identity as 'a piece of the continent, a part of the main'.

Britain is paying a heavy price both for its isolationist decision then and for the conspiracy of silence across the house to reverse this catastrophe now.

Ah, but what about @Westdene Seagull and his tampons?