Tag: VAT

Property Developers Ask for Public Guarantees and for VAT on New Home Purchases to be Reduced

APCEspaña is proposing a series of measures to improve access to housing and increase sales, such as the approval of guarantees and lines of credit to subsidise loans.

The Association of Property Developers of Spain (APCEspaña) has asked the Government to put in place measures to alleviate the effect of the coronavirus on the housing market, including credits guaranteed by the State and the reduction of taxes for the purchase of first homes.

One of the priority measures to improve access to housing for young people and increase sales is the approval of guarantees and lines of credit for first home loans that stimulate purchases. This has been introduced successfully in other European countries, such as the United Kingdom. “This measure does not entail a cost for the State, as it is not classified as debt,” says the association.

Hoteliers At FITUR Stand United Against Airbnb

25 January 2017 – Expansión

Same rules of the game / Directors of several major hotel chains are accusing the collaborative economy platform of unfair competition. They are also demanding more regulation and control by the authorities regarding homes made available for tourist use.

Fitur – the major tourism fair – brought together the main players in the tourism sector once again: airlines, hotel groups, transport companies, tour operators, travel agencies and purchasing centres, amongst others. One group of player, who did not attend but who were omnipresent at all the meetings, were online platforms, such as Airbnb. Even the definition of the collaborative economy was generating controversy.

Sources at Madrid’s Hotel Business Association (AEHM), the capital’s hotel trade association, emphasised that the boom in tourist homes is not only a phenomenon that is affecting cities such as Barcelona, although that city is hitting the headlines the most.

“Madrid has seen spectacular growth, increasing from 10,000 to 20,000 homes in one year and from 37,000 to 74,000 beds, although most of those have not been registered”, said the AEHM’s President, Gabriel García. “It constitutes unfair competition for the sector and it must be addressed”, he said.

Gabriel Escarrer, Vice-President and CEO at Meliá, was equally convinced. “There is a lack of regulation in the poorly-named collaborative economy. Meliá spends almost €18 per room in order to comply with regulations, not just in terms of taxes and licences, but also to comply with specific measures such as fire-proofing, security, occupational health and safety. That generates a disadvantage for us with respect to any individual who decides to rent out their apartment; what’s more, in most cases, those apartments do not have a licence or pay VAT”, he said.

For Escarrer, the person responsible “should not only be the owner of the home, but also parties that include such properties on their websites when they do not have operating licences”.

The Director General at the Palladium Group, Abel Matutes Prats, is aware that “we cannot buck the trends”, but, he emphasises that “it is unfair that there is so much regulation for hoteliers and yet a complete lack of regulation, both fiscal and normative, for everyone else. To illustrate the situation, he says that one segment has five referees watching over it, whilst the other has none”.

Antonio Catalán, President of AC by Marriott expresses the same sentiment. He considers that it is essential that the authorities act.

Sources at Airbnb say that they are not opposed to regulation but rather that they require it to “allow people to share their own homes”, in other words, they want “a single legal framework for individuals, distinct from the one applicable to professionals”. And they add: “The existing framework favours professional operators and harms those middle class people and families who want to open up their habitual residence. The collaborative economy needs clear legislation and Airbnb has always been open to working with cities to identify specific solutions”.

Property conversions

(…). “In many urban centres, residential assets are being converted into tourist properties and many cities are just not ready for the change, from the point of view of infrastructure or services. This results in problems for people living together”, explains Escarrer.

For Catalán, the key resides in “what type of city we want, Paris or Cancun, and what we have to do to achieve it”.

“In Ibiza, a type of tourism-phobia is started to emerge, which is hitting hoteliers. We have fewer rooms there than before. We bring fewer tourists than before, with higher quality but less volume. Why are there more tourists? Because of the collaborative economy. We need specific laws, like in New York, to limit the duration of stays and to require tourist apartments to comply with certain minimum health and safety requirements, and moreover, for tax fraud to be prosecuted”, said Matutes.

Airbnb’s sources reiterate that they are “part of the solution” to the challenges that cities are facing: “Airbnb complements the traditional tourist industry and helps to redistribute economic benefits from tourism amongst citizens, communities and neighbourhoods”.

Original story: Expansión (by Rebeca Arroyo)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Gómez-Pintado: House Building Up By 15% In 2016

6 October 2016 – Expansión

Yesterday, the Chairman of the property developers association APCE, Juan Antonio Gómez-Pintado, opened the association’s National Conference with moderate optimism. “We have not recovered completely”, he said, but he highlighted that his forecasts point to “a 15% increase in house construction” in 2016, “with signs of continued increases in 2017 and 2018”.

Gómez-Pintado highlighted that the major problem in the sector is the large latent demand for housing from young people who find themselves dissatisfied. For this reason, he asked the public administrations “to address” this debate. We need “stability regardless of whoever is in Government”, he said. He also urged property developers to “reduce production costs by focusing on innovation”.

“We face a significant challenge, to facilitate access to housing for young people (…). If not, the current improvement will be a new mirage”, added the Chairman of the association of property developers.

The Secretary of State for Finance, Miguel Ferre, did not take the hint and refused to discuss the possibility of any incentive plans for the sector. In his opinion, the fact that VAT has not been increased for property renovations and that a very favourable fiscal framework has been created for the Socimis are “measures that already carry weight” in the residential sector.

Ferre highlighted that the Socimis – listed real estate investment vehicles – already hold more than €9,300 million in assets and have a stock market value of more than €5,000 million. “It is one of the things that this minister is most proud of”, he said, referring to Cristóbal Montoro, who he stood in for at the conference. There are currently 30 Socimis in Spain, and 25 of them are listed on the Alternative Investment Market (MAB).

On the other hand, Ferre emphasised that, thanks to the fact that work to repair and renovate homes still carries a reduced VAT levy, of 10%, means that “the turnover of repair and renovation companies has increased by 13%”. The European Commission has mobilised €4,200 million of investment for potential low-carbon economy projects and “those funds should be redirected to building sustainability”, he added. (…).

Original story: Expansión (by Juanma Lamet)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Sareb Requests Permission To Deduct Its Input VAT

11 July 2016 – Expansión

Operations / The company known as the bad bank states that value added tax is designed to be charged to end consumers and asks that it be allowed to deduct it on its incoming assets.

The bad bank was born when it received foreclosed properties and developer loans from the rescued saving banks; and its mission is to gradually divest all of the assets in its possession, before it is wound up in 2027.

The company chaired by Jaime Echegoyen has to pay VAT on the homes that it acquires and for the new properties that enter onto its balance sheet, those that are foreclosed due defaulted developer loans, but it is planning to file a request for permission to deduct this tax in light of the entity’s special nature.

That it what it will ask of the new Government that is created following the next elections, according to official sources. Its objective is that the future Government will refer its request to the European state, where, it seems, it will not face any regulatory problems in terms of its harmonised tax configuration.

The institution argues, firstly, that this tax is designed to be borne by the end consumer, but that the current wording of Law 37/1992 governing VAT, forces it to bear the cost during the exercise of its activity, in operations of a commercial nature.

Secondly, it states that given that it is not able to deduct the VAT, it is forced to pass the charge onto end consumers through its house prices, in such a way that buyers “suffers from an unjustified increase in the tax charge”, since they also have to pay tax on the asset transfer itself. In its opinion, “this bias may be overcome”.

Legal experts at the institution also maintain that allowing the bad bank to deduct VAT from its foreclosed properties, as well as from those received by means of “dación en pago” would not result in a decrease in the funds raised by the autonomous governments. By contrast, they consider that it would boost said amount, given that Sareb would no longer charge VAT that it has been allowed to deduct from the house prices and that decrease would result in an increase in the volume of operations and therefore in the number of properties sold, which means that income from taxes on property transfers would rise.

In terms of the change to regulations in Europe, Sareb argues that Directive 2006/112/CE provides for the possibility of exempting the payment of VAT: In general, it establishes that it is not possible to exempt the sale of properties from VAT before their first occupancy, but that any transfers that are carried out after that first occupancy should be exempt. Sareb hopes that this possible amendment will be accompanied by a transitory regime for second and subsequent sales of unoccupied homes acquired before the change enters into force.

Original story: Expansión (by A. Crespo and S. Arancibia)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Disagreement Between Tax Authorities And 4 Top Banks Over Nozar’s Future

10 March 2015 – Expansión

Two camps have been established in the lengthy bankruptcy process involving the real estate company Nozar. The company, which operates food and hotel companies, in addition to its real estate business, is awaiting the court’s decision as to whether to accept or reject the proposed agreement presented at the end of last year.

This proposal has the support of 30 creditors, which together hold 73.73% of the senior loans and almost 70% of the ordinary loans. The creditors include entities such as Bankia, Banco Sabadell and Hypothekenbank, as well as companies such as Colonial and the Tax Authorities.

Nevertheless, another four financial creditors (BBVA, Popular, CaixaBank and Santander), together with Nozar’s bankruptcy administrators, have expressed their opposition to the proposal. Barclays has decided to abstain.

The confrontation between Nozar and the two bankruptcy administrators has led the company to file a criminal complaint against them. In turn, the administrators, together with the four Spanish banks, are calling for the liquidation (of the company).

The origin of this confrontation stems from a series of agreements that Nozar reached with its creditor banks before it filed for bankruptcy and which caused it to reduce its debt from €3,500 million to around €1,500 million. The bankruptcy administrators estimate that these financial creditors should return around €110 million to Nozar through rescissory actions. Nevertheless, the administrators abandoned the recovery of around €62 million.

Instead, Nozar understands that this figure is much higher and that BBVA, Popular, CaixaBank and Santander should repay €500 million that was (previously) distributed to the creditors. Therefore, the bankruptcy administrator of Dimora Gestión, the company created by Nozar, which is in turn a creditor, has claimed €479.4 million from these entities.

The Tax Authorities, which are owed €200 million, claim the payment of VAT on these rescissory actions; a payment that has been postponed by many real estate companies during the crisis. The creditors that have signed up to the bankruptcy agreement support the formula that once the €500 million from the rescissory actions has been repaid, then €50 million should be paid to the Tax Authorities and the asset shall be distributed based on the debt held by each one.

Original story: Expansión (by R. Ruiz)

Translation: Carmel Drake