Pothecary Witham Weld Solicitors

One month deadline to reclaim Spanish CGT

Britons who sold a property in Spain between 1997 and 2006 must begin the process of reclaiming capital gains tax (CGT) that they were illegally charged by the Spanish government on the sale of their property before the end of July 2010.

This is due to the Spanish government imposing a CGT charge of 35 per cent compared to a rate of 15 per cent paid by Spanish nationals.

According to the foreign exchange service, to date hundreds of Britons have reclaimed an average of £14,980 each from the Spanish tax office.

In November last year, the European Court of Justice ruled in favour of claimants and said that any UK/EU citizen who sold a Spanish property between 1 January 1997 and 31 December 2006 could successfully claim.  All claims need to be settled by the end of October and as August is a holiday month in Spain, people have only a few days left to begin the three-month claim process.