February 16
Dear Sir
We have always loved Spain and we owned a house in El Verger, Denia, for over 14 years and we have always paid our dues.
We sold the house in November 2015. Now, today, it is February 2018 and we are still waiting for the 3% retention the government took and which it does for all non-residents when they sell.
We have spoken with our fiscal lady, who has tried to get any information from the tax office on when we may get it, but to date no information is forthcoming.
Is this legal? Or is it in breach of a European law?
Or are the Spanish government waiting until Brexit takes place so they do not have to pay any non-resident from the UK the 3% owed.
Any advice would be very helpful.
Dave and Kaarina
Our legal expert, Clive Webster, replies:
When you sold your property as non-resident taxpayers in Spain, your buyer was obliged to retain 3% of the sale price and deposit this amount with the tax office, using official form number 211.
Your fiscal lady will then have completed the official form number 210 and presented this document, together with copies of any other documentation that is required, to the tax office. The tax office can take for up to a year to process the refunds, so it looks that it is taking considerably longer in your case.
It is probably for some reason that they are taking such a long time, and in our experience, they do let us know what the problem is.
All I can suggest is that you let us have copies of the forms 211 and 210, and we can then attempt to find out what is causing the delay and hopefully sort it out for you.
