Today the Council of Ministers approves the new capital gains tax appropriate to the Constitutional ruling

The Council of Ministers will approve this Monday a Royal Decree-law to reform the articles that have been declared unconstitutional in the Tax on the Increase of the Value of Urban Lands, known as municipal capital gain, which taxes the revaluation of real estate.

In the absence of knowing the details of the text, sources from the Ministry of Finance led by María Jesús Montero have confirmed that it will comply with the sentence issued this week by the Constitutional Court. Therefore, it is foreseeable that the Treasury will reform the tax so that the capital gain can only be taxed when it actually occurs and not as up to now, when there were cases in which the gain was zero and the tax managed by the municipalities continued to be paid.

In his judgment of October 26, the TC annulled several aspects of the tribute -which is paid when someone sells, donates or inherits a home-, by virtue of which it always had to be paid, regardless of whether there had been a real increase in value and the fee could be excessive. According to the Constitutional magistrates, the calculation method Current tax base leads to a result that deviates “notably” from the real values ​​of real estate in the real estate market.

With the modifications that will be approved tomorrow, the fee can be calculated through the cadastral value at the time of the transfer, with new coefficients that will be set by the ministry and that will reflect the real estate reality, or through another option that will consist of assessing the difference between the purchase value and sale value. In this way, will allow taxpayers to choose between two calculation methods the one that benefits them the most.

“It is about launching a solution that allows the tax to be constitutional and that the municipalities can continue to collect it. That was the commitment that was acquired and what is going to be done,” they emphasize from the ministry.

The Minister of Finance, María Jesús Montero, already advanced this week that she would bring to the Council of Ministers “a legal text to correct elements that had been declared unconstitutional”, with the aim of giving “peace of mind and security” to taxpayers and guarantee financing. of the local entities, which are the ones that receive the resources of this tax.

In addition, the Treasury does not rule out the possibility of making the change have retroactive effects from the date of the court ruling, that is, on October 26.