The Supreme Court declares that the taxpayer of the Tax on Property Transfers and Documented Legal Acts in mortgage loan operations is the client-borrower and not the bank-lender.
SUPREME COURT
CIVIL ROOM
TECHNICAL OFFICE
PRESS RELEASE. APPEALS OF CASSATION 1211/2017 AND 1518/2017
Today, the Plenary Session of the First Chamber of the Supreme Court has deliberated and resolved two appeals in relation to claims by consumers against clauses in their loan deeds with mortgage guarantee, which attributed to them the payment of all expenses and taxes generated by the operation.
The Court has started from its own jurisprudence on the abusiveness of a clause that, without negotiation and in an indiscriminate manner, attributes in all cases the payment of expenses and taxes to the consumer, despite the fact that the law, according to the different assumptions, makes a distribution of them.
In the specific cases submitted to prosecution, the Supreme Court was now discussing only matters relating to the payment of the tax on property transfers and documented legal acts. The Court has partially upheld the appeals filed by the affected consumers and has established that various situations must be distinguished regarding said tax:
a) Due to the constitution of the loan, payment is the responsibility of the borrower. In this regard, it refers to the constant jurisprudence of the Third Chamber, Contentious-Administrative, of the Supreme Court, which has established that the taxpayer of the tax is the borrower.
b) For the stamping of notarial documents, the tax corresponding to the matrix will be paid in equal parts between lender and borrower, and the corresponding tax to the copies, by whoever requests them.
The ruling has already been communicated to the parties’ attorneys. The full text of the sentences will be announced in the coming days.
Madrid, February 28, 2018
