Tax breaks for all in Spain

The McBroon Clan of Scottish ministers and sporran-hanging MPs, having ruined the British economy, have now been exposed as tax dodgers with many of them getting taxpayers to pick up the bills from the accountants they hired “to make sure we were paying the correct of amount of tax”.

For “correct” read “minimum”. And the worst offender appears to be Alistair Darling, the man in charge of tax matters and who recently declared war on tax havens and all those business people using them.

Since he and his predecessor as chancellor, the head of the McBroons himself, came to power they have increased the tax burden on the British citizenry to the highest levels for decades. So why should the rest of us part with a penny of the ever-increasing taxation being demanded by a man who doesn't pay his own fair share?

McDarling's tax avoidance was revealed by the Daily Telegraph because his expenses claims showed that he'd 'flipped' his designated second home - the one on which he could claim running costs from the taxpayer - four times in four years.

In 2004, when he was Secretary of State for Transport, Mr Darling claimed that his main residence was a small flat in Lambeth, owned by Lewis Moonie, a fellow Labour MP. Mr Moonie - another part of the spider’s web of Scottish McBroon MPs - had bought the flat from Gordon Brown.

But for McDarling, designating this flat as his main residence - despite the fact that his wife and children lived in Scotland - allowed him to bill taxpayers for the upkeep of his much larger Edinburgh house, bought for £570,000 in 1998…

It would take an accountant to unravel such a web of deceit and maximise the tax avoidance, so it’s no surprise he hired one and put his fees on the taxpayer’s tab. The saga is detailed in the Daily Mail and is worth reading.

Also worth reading for taxpayers planning to invest some of their cash the McBroons have not yet grabbed, is an article on how to buy a bargain property in Spain – including Spanish bank repossessions – and avoid all the McBroon property taxes. No capital gains tax – benefit enjoyed by McBroon and other MPs – and no inheritance tax, no currency exchange problems etc.

The scheme is called Libertad – Spanish for Freedom – and more Brits are planning to follow the example of the McBroons and minimise the amount of tax they hand over.

When to buy that "must-sell" property in Spain?

As the early fall-out from the world credit crunch settles over sunny Spain, there's a whole new breed of savvy buyers eying up the resultant property bargains - and liking what they see.

Couples like John and Janet Wilson are telling everybody about the apartment in Costa Blanca they snapped up with a 25 percent discount (saving £37,000) that was proven when their Spanish bank advanced a 70 percent mortgage. The 2-bed home came with fitted kitchen, wide balcony, three communal pools, tennis courts and a gym - and that famous Spanish lifestyle...

The Wilsons are saying: "We're so pleased with our bargain. A saving of more than 25 per cent isn't exactly small change - it made a world of difference to us and as we are not planningt to sell, what happens to general property values doesn't matter at this stage."

They bought from a "must-sell" builder in the current dash for cash that can mean the difference between the firm staying afloat or going under. They have a 10-year build guarantee and a near completed development with all facilities up and running. Minimal buyers' risk.

But would they have got a bigger bargain if they had waited longer into the credit crunch? Possibly, but that could another year down the line. There may be better bargains in a year or so when the liguidators of the Spanish developers who have gone bust start their fire sales of assets that include finished or near finished homes. 

There could be tens of thousands in the Costas, but the liguidators will be seeking "trade" buyers rather than having to deal with individuals seeking a holiday home. By the time they hit the general market there will be added costs and profit margins pushing up the price to the end user.

So savvy Brit buyers are making their moves now and taking their time to assess the bargains on offer. Google ranks specialist website, www.propertyinspain.net as the top source for Spanish bank repossessions and they receive inquiries for these on a daily basis from British and north European buyers. 

"We have buyers who have put down hefty deposits on repossessions at up to 50 percent below current valuation and are happy to wait until the slow process of physical return of the villas to the bank concerned. The interest they are getting on their deposits is very good and more than double the 2.4 percent equity growth they would be getting had the sale already gone through," explained spokesman, Kevin Barnett.

The website has a Fact Sheet on Spanish repossession procedures and a selection of bargains in prime Costas and Real Spain areas.

Estate agents lose out to the lettuce sellers

Once there were a lot of them, but now they are closing down their offices on a daily basis all over the Cost del Sol and Costa Blanca, where 80,000 estate agents are thought to have lost their jobs.

For those people who didn’t realise there were so many people selling property in Spain that figure might come as a surprise, but it is just a fraction of the job losses suffered by the guys who have been building the villas and apartments.

Big name agents like Fincas Corral, MC Inmobiliaria, and Don Piso have closed up to 75 percent of their hundreds of branches and the 10 biggest chains in Spain have closed an average of 150 estate agent offices..

No-one will miss them, least of all the Spanish College of Estate Agents, Their president, Santiago Baena, while admitting the closures have been brutal, claims most of them were not proper estate agents anyway. "We always said training was essential but they ask for more training for a man selling lettuce in the market because he has to use a machine."

The construction workers have gone grape picking in France where they, apparently, earn more money (€8.71/£6.95), according to their trade union bosses. Picking lettuce in Almeria doesn’t offer that sort of money, so there is uncertainty for jobless estate agents seeking a new cash crop to harvest.

The mass closure of estate agents' offices may also be a symptom of the way the Spanish real estate industry is changing.

One of Spain’s leading property sales websites is www.propertyinspain.net whose one-stop. select-view-purchase offer once covered all Spain’s second home areas, has also trimmed back on its local affiliate network to concentrate on the best bargain areas. They have retained multi-lingual, well-trained property professionals in key areas to look after their buyers seeking big discounts they first spotted on their website.

Gareth Milton, operations manager of www.propertyshowrooms.com said: "Companies who had always focused on web-based activities without the massive overheads associated with a network of physical branch offices are the ones more likely to weather the storm."