According to Spanish Legal Reclaims, a tax loophole meant up to 40,000 Britons were overcharged almost 100% inheritance tax for property or assets inherited in Spain.
The company said even conservative estimates put the total amount to be reclaimed by UK families £400m – around £10,000 per claimant. However, it said so far the average reclaim amount it is currently handling is £12,000, with one reclaim standing at a possibly £1m.
In March this year the European Commission ruled that by taxing foreigners at very high rates and their own people barely at all, the Spanish government’s IHT provisions infringe EU treaty freedoms when either the heirs or deceased persons are non-residents in Spain.
However, the Spanish provisions are still in place so people are continuing to be overcharged, and it is anticipated that it may take up to two years for the authorities to end the practice.
Luis Cuervo chief executive at Spanish Legal Reclaims said: “Hundreds of families from across the UK and Spain have now come forward as they believe they have fallen foul of this Spanish tax loop and have been wrongfully overcharged IHT by 100%. The reclaim amounts we are currently dealing with are also higher than the anticipated average reclaim we were expecting. Our current data shows that the average reclaim amount is currently £12,000 when we estimated claimants would have average reclaims of £10,000.
“Anyone who has inherited a Spanish property and who is not a Spanish resident will have been a victim of discriminatory IHT, which has seen non residents pay higher IHT bills. We believe this tax discrimination has affected up to 60,000 UK families alone, as well as thousands of people in other European countries. They may have believed they were fortunate to inherit a property in Spain, but in the process they have actually been scammed out of a lot of money which they have every right to reclaim.”
