The Spanish Government reforms the capital gains tax: It will only be paid if there is profit

The government has just modified the capital gains tax in such a way that it will only be paid if a profit has been made on the sale of a property. In addition, the most beneficial way to calculate the amount can be chosen between two options.

“In no case will the tax be paid if there is no profit on the sale,” said the government spokesperson and Minister of Territorial Policy, Isabel Rodríguez, at the press conference after the Council of Ministers.

The decree-law approved this Monday adapts this tax to the sentence of the Constitutional Court, which two weeks ago declared unconstitutional and null several articles of the Local Tax Regulatory Law related to this tax, which is paid when someone sells, donates or inherits a housing, with which the municipalities were left without a way to calculate it.

Taxpayers, Rodríguez explained, will be able to choose between two ways to calculate capital gains: an objective one, which is by multiplying the cadastral value by a series of coefficients. The coefficients will be regulated each year according to the evolution of the real estate market. Another real, which results from the difference between the sale price and the acquisition price.