Important news on housing for tourist use

What is a dwelling for tourist use?

By tourist use of a dwelling is understood «the temporary assignment of the totality of a property furnished and equipped in conditions of immediate use, whatever the channel through which it is marketed or promoted, and carried out with lucrative and onerous purpose».

In this sense, it is necessary to take into consideration that those tourist accommodations governed by specific regulations, the right of use of real estate and housing rentals defined in Law 29/1994 of November 24, 1994, on Urban Leases and the partial sublease of housing shall be excluded from this concept.

Novelties in the regulations

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In December the Council of Ministers approved Royal Decree 1070/2017, of December 29, which establishes the obligation of rental platforms for housing for tourist use, such as Airbnb or Wimdu, to send to the Tax Agency a specific informative declaration. This new regulation came into force last summer and, in principle, the first delivery of tax information to the Inland Revenue was scheduled for October 31, 2018, as the regulation establishes that the deliveries will be quarterly.

However, following the approval of the Ministerial Order HFP/544/2018, of May 24, the Treasury has made an exception so that the platforms manage to adapt to the new regulation. Thus, it is foreseen that the informative declaration for the 2018 financial year will be annual and made between January 1 and 31, 2019. From 2019 the period will be quarterly and the information must be submitted «during the calendar month following the end of each calendar quarter».

Informative declaration

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Such informative declaration is mandatory for those persons and entities that provide the intermediation service between transferors and transferees. The information to be provided has to appreciate the identification of:

• the owner of the property

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• the holder of the right by virtue of which the dwelling is assigned.
• the holder of the right by virtue of which the dwelling is assigned.
• the assignee persons or entities.

Regarding the identification of the property, it is necessary to determine:

• the cadastral reference.
• the cadastral reference.
• the number of days of enjoyment of the property for tourism purposes.
• the number of days of enjoyment of the property for tourism purposes.
• the amount received by the owner who has transferred the right.

Likewise, it is also mandatory to submit periodic reports in order to be able to declare more accurately the activity being carried out.

Intermediaries

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Taking into account the aforementioned, intermediaries are considered to be those persons and entities that intermediate in the assignment of use of the dwellings for tourism purposes.

Monitoring and control, avoiding tax fraud

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The purpose of the Ministry of Finance is to increase the surveillance and control of this type of apartments, in order to prevent tax fraud. This purpose is in line with one of the most important objectives of the Tax Agency, which is to control all those rentals that, contrary to what is established by law, have not been declared.

From LAWYOU, we help you

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At LAWYOU we have expert lawyers with many years of experience who will help you with any question in this regard. Do not hesitate to contact us through our e-mail address info@lawyoulegal.com or, if you prefer, you can also call us at 602 226 895.