How much municipal capital gains tax is payable? Is it true that nothing is payable if you have owned the flat for more than 20 years?

Question

José Manuel Alburquerque · Accepted Answer

It is not true. The law counts 20 years at most and, from then on, applies one of the highest coefficients, so anyone selling a flat they have owned for more than 20 years usually pays more, not less, in “plusvalía municipal”, the municipal capital gains tax. The amount is based on the cadastral value of the land, shown on the bill for the IBI, the local property tax, multiplied by a coefficient that depends on how many years you have owned the flat. The town council's tax rate, which in Barcelona is 30 %, is applied to that result. If the actual gain in the value of the land is lower, you can ask for the tax to be calculated on that gain. How it is calculated There are two calculations and you can ask for whichever is lower to be applied: The normal calculation multiplies the cadastral value of the land for the year of the sale by the coefficient corresponding to the number of complete years you have owned the flat, up to a maximum of 20. Nine years and eleven months count as nine. The calculation based on the actual gain compares the purchase and sale values, without adding expenses and only for the part corresponding to the land. If there is no gain, nothing is payable. The tax rate, which each council sets without exceeding 30 %, is applied to the resulting base. Barcelona applies 30 %. The current system, in force since November 2021, was upheld by the “Tribunal Constitucional”, Spain's Constitutional Court, in 2023. Barcelona's coefficients today Barcelona currently applies the maximum coefficients allowed by law, except for sales after less than a year, for which its own coefficient is lower. Depending on how many years you have owned the flat, they are as follows: From one to eight years, between 0,14 and 0,20. From nine to eighteen years, between 0,09 and 0,17. Nineteen years, 0,23. Twenty years or more, 0,40. For example, with today's coefficients, if the cadastral value of the land is 50.000 euros and you have owned the flat for 25 years, the base is 20.000 euros, the result of applying 0,40. At the 30 % rate, you pay 6.000 euros. Had you owned it for 10 years, with 0,12, you would pay 1.800 euros. On the other hand, if you bought it for 300.000 euros and sell it for 310.000, with land accounting for 40 % of the cadastral value, the actual gain in the value of the land is 4.000 euros. If you ask for the tax to be calculated on that gain, you pay 1.200 euros. Why it does not disappear after 20 years After 20 years the tax stops growing with the passage of time, because 20 years is the maximum counted. But it does not disappear. With the current table, the coefficient for 20 years or more is the highest of all. Nor is there any reduction for the seller's age. It can only come to nothing if the land has not gained in value or in very specific cases, such as handing over one's principal residence to the bank to discharge the mortgage. If the October 2026 decree is ratified by Parliament (“convalidación”), that is, if the “Congreso”, the lower house, confirms it, there will be a new table of maximum coefficients. Any Barcelona coefficients above the new maximum will be reduced to it without waiting for the municipal ordinance to be amended. In the rest of Spain the rules are the same, but each council sets its own rate and coefficients, so the tax varies greatly from one municipality to another.