The Constitutional Court endorses the cadastral worth as a reference for the fee of taxes on housing transfers | Economy | EUROtoday

The Constitutional Court has endorsed this Thursday that the Treasury makes use of the cadastral reference worth to calculate the taxes paid for the acquisition, sale, donation or inheritance of a house. The courtroom of ensures considers that this parameter, in power since 2022 and which serves to find out the tax base of taxes corresponding to that of property transfers and documented authorized acts or that of inheritances and donations in keeping with the market worth of the property, is a “system of objective quantification of potential economic capacities that has a reasonable and sufficient justification.”

This conclusion has been reached by the complete courtroom of ensures, which has unanimously dismissed the query of unconstitutionality raised by the Contentious-Administrative Chamber of the Superior Court of Justice of Andalusia. That courtroom questioned that the calculation technique based mostly on the worth given by the General Directorate of the Cadastre for every property, based mostly on the costs of gross sales carried out annually earlier than a notary, may violate the precept of financial capability. According to the autonomous excessive courtroom, the truth that the legislator had waived that the worth of the property be adopted in keeping with the circumstances of every dwelling, choosing different “universal and abstract formulas”, may give rise to “inexpressive situations” and never in accordance with the “real value” of the operation.

This is among the tax points that has traditionally generated the best litigation within the courts. The utility of the reference worth to tax the switch of a property was launched by the measures to forestall and fight tax fraud accepted in July 2021, which got here into power in January 2022. The goal was to resolve the discrepancies between taxpayers and regional administrations, which utilized simplified valuation methods.

With this new system, the taxpayer would pay taxes for the market worth of the house at the moment, with out the necessity for an skilled to go to the property and with out bearing in mind its situation. However, the appliance of this method has meant in some circumstances that the tax quantity to be paid is increased than what would correspond if the worth of the acquisition or switch of the property had been taken under consideration.

The Constitutional magistrates contemplate that the cadastral reference worth permits acquiring an “adequate measurement of the taxed wealth, there being a reasonable connection between the fact and the tax base of the tax.” As reported by the very best interpreter of the Constitution in an announcement, the method to estimate the worth of the property isn’t “arbitrary”, however fairly “has a close relationship with the economic reality that it seeks to quantify” and has an “objective and reasonable” justification, corresponding to administrative simplification, discount of litigation, authorized certainty and avoidance of tax fraud.

The courtroom provides that in circumstances during which the taxpayer considers that there was a “deviation with respect to the market value” and that the “individualization” of his case is important to deal with particular circumstances, the regulation supplies for the opportunity of correction. In this fashion, the Constitutional Court discards the doubt of the Superior Court of Justice of Andalusia that the cadastral reference worth is “generic estimates”, nor a “closed valuation system, inaccessible to taxpayers”.