The Tax on Capital Transfer and Documented Legal Acts establishes that leases are subject to the following tax:

• Housing leases, except for those with a purchase option, seasonally furnished apartments and sub-leases of dwellings
• Leases of land, including annexes, including agricultural constructions for the operation of rural properties, except land dedicated to the parking of vehicles; storage or storage of goods, merchandise or products; exhibitions or advertising; and leases of land with a purchase option
• Leases subject to VAT formalised in a public deed and registered in the Property Registry

The payment of this tax corresponds to the lessee, must be made within thirty working days after the signing of the lease and must be computed for the entire duration of the lease.

However, in spite of the validity of this tax, until now, the existence of such tax was hardly known and neither does it appear that the regional tax administrations did much to control their collection because of their low economic importance. All this has changed and there are several Comunidades Autónomas (Spanish regions) where settlements have been made to the tenants to collect this fee, with retroactive effects (non-prescribed exercises) and interest for delay.

The need for liquidity of Public Administrations and the improvement of the technical means to detect leases and non-payment of the tax, thanks to the crossing of data such as deductions for rent, personal income tax returns or bond deposits where the lease data, have facilitated the claim to the lessees.

The Tax on Patrimonial Transmissions and Documented Legal Acts is a tax assigned to the Comunidades Autónomas, which have powers to determine the type of tax, depending on the place where the real estate resides.

To know how much is paid for this tax, it is necessary to see its taxable base; i.e. the monetary valuation of the taxable event that originates the birth of the main tax liability, since it determines the type of tax. To calculate the taxable base, the rules to be applied are the following:

“If the duration of the contract is established, the taxable amount is determined by the total price of the contract, and when the contract period is not recorded, the liquidation is turned into a six-year period, without prejudice to subsequent further liquidations that must be carried out if it is still in force after that period. In a contract with a duration of one year which can be renewed annually, you must take the total amount to be satisfied during the maximum period provided.”

The Comunidades Autónomas can freely determine the tax quota, but almost all have applied the state scale, which varies according to the total amount of the contract, although some Comunidades Autónomas have established bonuses, such as Aragon, Cantabria or Galicia.

Jose Ángel Marrero