1 Million Undeclared Rental Incomes Revealed

 

A recent Investigation has revealed that over 50% of rental income arising from property in Spain is not declared – which totals and estimated One Million Properties across the Country.

The Investigation, carried out by the GESTHA department of the Hacienda, has found that over half of the income gained from rental accommodation was not declared. The amount lost to the taxman has been estimated at 2.45 billion € a year, with the most fraudulent areas found to be Cataluña, Andalucía and Madrid.

The report does not include income from commercial premises.

GESTHA claim that the local tax authorities are failing to take advantage of new anti-fraud legislation, which was introduced 3 years ago, José María Mollinedo – General Secretary of GESTHA described the current system as ‘very bad' and told reporters that new measures are urgently needed in order to bring the system back under control.

However the Hacienda departmental Chiefs doubt the accuracy of the claim, and claim the numbers, based on data from 2007, do not add up, and would mean that there are more than a million undeclared rental incomes across the country.