What is IBI receipt or Impuesto de Bienes Inmuebles?
El Impuesto de Bienes Inmuebles or IBI is a local town hall or municipal tax, levying on ownership and property rights of the holder of a property (regardless of whether urban or rural). Property qualification is given by Oficina de Catastro in Spain.
The taxable event for the IBI is the ownership of properties and does not depend on the participation coefficient you have in that property or the legal form.
The tax is accrued every year on the 1st of January. For this reason, tax liability belongs to the owner of the property at that time and the IBI receipt will be issued in his or her name. It is the holder of this receipt who is liable for the payment of this tax.
When a sale is made, the seller must present the last, most recent IBI receipt to the notary. On the Costa del Sol, in most cases and pending the agreement between the parties involved, a proportional part of the tax is charged to the buyer, depending on the month the buy-sell transaction is made.
If the seller has outstanding IBI debts, the debt will be transferred to the new holder of the property when changing the ownership of the property. Accordingly, make sure the property does not have any outstanding debts at the time the signature is made before the notary.
Notice that an invoice is issued for each property. In other words, if you buy a property with both garage and storage, and those buildings have different cadastral references, the Patronato entity will issue three invoices, and you will have to pay all of them (one for the house, another one for the garage and the third one for the storage).
We recommend you request a Cadastral Certificate at the Oficina del Catastro where you will find all the information concerning that property. You can do this here: Oficina Virtual del Catastro.
How to calculate IBI?
To calculate the amount of the IBI receipt payment due, you have to take the tax base and apply both reductions and the tax rate itself. The value of net tax base for IBI (date of cadastral value review and the date establishing the value of the property are considered here) is obtained in this manner.
Tax rates are determined by Ley de Hacienda Locales, local tax authorities, fixing minimum and maximum rates for every property depending on the category of the property and other concepts. Minimum and maximum rates are:
- Minimum rates: 0.4% for urban property and 0.3% for rural property.
- Maximum rates: 1.10 for urban property and 0.90% for rural property.
IBI in Marbella:
Marbella Town Hall published in the Boletín Oficial de la Provincia on 22nd January 2015 the modification of IBI subsidy included in a tax reduction plan scheduled for that year, giving subsidies according to cadastral value of the property, according to these rates:
- 20% for properties with cadastral value up to 100,000€.
- 15% for properties with cadastral value between 100,001 and 200,000€.
- 10% for properties with cadastral between 200,001€ and 300,000€.
- 5% for properties with higher cadastral value.
We recommend you ask your town hall for IBI subsidy details.
Who manages IBI in Marbella?
In Marbella, IBI is managed by the local Patronato de Recaudación Provincial de Málaga. Receipts always include:
- Agency, holder of receipt and residence tax
- Concept and fee of receipt (and late fees)
- Deadline for payment (usually September)
- Information of liquidation: All data concerning calculation of the receipt (tax base, cadastral value, net tax base, the year of the last cadastral review, base value, qualification of property, applied rate, full and net quota, late fees, and all other related concepts regarding the IBI tax calculation)
How to pay the IBI tax?
- You can pay by direct debt.
- By going to a bank branch with the money and the receipt (you can apply for receipt here) and paying in cash. Banks have special schedules for payments, so we recommend you check these schedules beforehand.
There is also a personal payment plan if you need to split the payment. Look here for details..
- Obtain a Cadastral Certificate at Oficina Virtual del Catastro to make sure everything is correct and you have no outstanding debts on the property.
- After you have bought the property, we recommend you apply for automatic payment if you have the right,you can also split payment in installments and pay by direct debit at your bank branch. You can forget about dates and avoid default interests and other penalties this way.
Information given is offered for information purposes, excluding the company from all responsibility, and does not constitute an official publication, legal advice, nor will it be binding. We always recommend checking with your lawyer or adviser.
Massimo Filippa
