Spanish Law Blog

As is known, at the end of 2019 a global pandemic began that reached Europe in early 2020 and influenced all aspects of daily life, the effect it produced on taxpayers, unfortunately, not only emotionally speaking, but also in relation to tax obligations.

In Common Law countries, the trust is a very widespread legal instrument in the field of inheritance since it allows to plan the destiny of the estate of the settlor after his death.

Lawyers who work in real estate law have heard this sentence many times and the first thing that comes to mind is: please, get in touch with a lawyer to guide you through the process.

In December 2016, through a Supreme Court Resolution, clauses known as "Mortgage’s Expenses” were declared an abusive banking practice. Since then, there has been an eternal discussion in the Provincial Courts about the right to claim reimbursement of set up costs for mortgaged loans and its statute of limitations, which has now been settled by the recent EU Court Resolution dated on April 22^nd.

At Legal Steps, lately and despite the current Pandemic situation, or precisely because of it, we are receiving quite a few inquiries from non-resident homeowners who intend to rent their home for a couple of months under the possibility called ETV60.

In the real estate, for decades, the conclusion of a Purchase Option Contract has been a very usual practice as a preliminary or preparatory step for a subsequent sale. The performance of an option contract gives the buyer the right, not the obligation, to buy. And both parties can generally get out of the transaction by paying to the other party a compensation equivalent to the amount of the premium, although it will depend on the agreements.

The tax on the increase in value of urban land, commonly known as tax of plusvalía municipal, is the tax levied on the increase in value that an urban land has had over time as a result of a transfer of its property, either sale, donation or inheritance. It should be pointed out that this tax is only levied on the increase in the value of the land, and that, in principle, it is independent and has no relation to the purchase price of the property.

In the last few years of Franco’s Regime, Law 8/1975 and its development by Royal Decree 689/1978 established for foreigners the need to obtain a military authorization as a prerequisite  before buying real estate in Spain. As a result of the exceptions made by the Law itself, in most of the cases, the authorization was only necessary for foreigners to buy rustic land. Years after, Law 31/1990 removed the said authorization for the EU citizens and today it is not required either for Icelanders, Norwegians, and Swiss citizens. 

We are not experts on Foreign Office affairs, and we do not intend to be. Unfortunately, we cannot help you this time with any assistance that you may request on the subject, but we want to make our contribution and bring some light to your new status, giving you a few tricks about it. 

The United Kingdom formally left the European Union on 31st January 2020 and became a third country to the EU. As you already know the transition period ended on December 31st, 2020.

The United Kingdom formally left the European Union on 31st January 2020 and became a third country to the EU. On February 1st, 2020 a transition period started which is due to end on December 31st, 2020.