DRONES FIND PROPERTY TAX DODGERS

Tax office tracks down over 66,000 properties on the Costa Blanca that have been dodging IBI tax

A WIDESCALE investigation commissioned by the tax office has discovered 66,333 properties in Alicante province that have been defrauding IBI property tax payments.

Drones and satellite images have been used to detect properties that were not registered and others that had not reported extensions and further building - which increases rateable value (valor catastral) and thus IBI tax.

As a result of this investigation, an extra €8.7million have been collected via IBI tax in the Valencia region - more than 50% of the amount collected until now.

According to the investigation, carried out by the rateable value office (Oficina de Valor Catastral), the most common fraud has been the failure to report new building, followed by extension and rehabilitation projects that have increased the property value, plus the building of swimming pools and other additional facilities.

In the entire Valencia region, 146,749 tax-dodging properties have been detected.

A REPORT on a nationwide investigation into IBI property tax fraud using satellite images and drone photography has unveiled 1.69 million properties that have dodged or underpaid the tax.

The report, carried out by the 'Catastro' rateable value office and now in the hands of acting tax office minister Cristóbal Montoro, has exceeded the department's expectations as the amount is 24% more that initially forecast.

Launched in 2014, this investigation alone has resulted in an extra income of €1.25billion for town halls - in charge of IBI property tax.

It shows that fraud is carried out by 8.9% of all prop- erties listed in Spain.

The shameful side of it is that 70% of the offending properties found have not been spotted by local authorities, as they are new buildings, extensions and swimming pools that were never declared by their owners - a simple local council inspection and subsequent official report to the 'Catastro' office would have revealed the irregularities.

So far, the investigation has concluded in 4,145 muncipalities throughout the country - with 1.61 million properties found to be paying far less IBI tax than they should.

The region with the largest number of defrauding properties is Andalucia (373,224). However, in proportion, Lugo province in Galicia leads the way as 27.26%of properties in the province were not paying enough IBI tax.

VALENCIA AND MURCIA REGIONS

The rateable value office has investigated almost 2.5 million properties in the Valencia region, where 149,749 irregularitis were found - 6.09% of the total figures.

In Murcia, 49,821 irregularities were found after investigating 1,059,236 properties (4.7%).

The exact figure for Spain is 18,738,115 properties investigated, of which 1.61 million were not paying enough IBI tax and 8,000 had simply not been reported as existing.

HOW MUCH?

The impact non-declared properties and extensions have on IBI tax (the bulk of local town hall tax income) is proved by the following example provided by the tax office:

A plot valued at €22,000 was listed as non-developed and thus paid an annual IBI rate of €132. The use of satellite and drone images proved a house had been built on the land and the rateable value (Valor Catastral) increased to €88,000, with a resulting increase in IBI tax to €528.

The Catastro office has not completed the nationwide task yet. So far, the investigation has concluded in 4,000 municipalities, but another 1,721 are currently under investigation.