The Official Gazette of the Generalitat de Catalunya of November 7, 2016 has published Law 2/2016, of November 2, of urgent modifications in tax matters, whose article 5 introduces a novelty consisting of a bonus of 100% of the gradual quota of the tax on documented legal acts, for the public deed granted by the spouses in which they agree, in the terms regulated by law, their separation or divorce by mutual consent; and the same bonus applies to public deeds that document the extinction by mutual agreement of the stable couple formalized by the cohabitants, in accordance with article 234-4 of the second book of the Civil Code of Catalonia, relating to the person and the family, approved by Law 25/2010, of July 29.
As has been the usual norm in recent times, without distinguishing between state or regional legislator, this law entered into force the day after its publication, that is, on November 8.
Let's do a little recent history. Law 15/2015 of voluntary jurisdiction allowed, in certain circumstances, that divorces and separations be made before a Notary or before the Court Clerk and due to the data that is filtered through the press, separation and notarial divorce, is something that is becoming established in the practice of notaries in Catalonia.
In this same blog, I published more than a year ago an entry called Taxation of separations and divorces before Notarieither, where he made reference to the fact that, in certain cases, there was a different taxation in the separation and divorce, depending on whether it was processed before a Notary Public or before the Court Clerk.
BUDGETS OF THE DIFFERENT TREATMENT
This difference had as budgets:
a.- That the economic regime of the divorced couple be that of separation of assets (which is usual in Catalonia)
b.- and that as a consequence of the divorce, assets that were previously undivided were awarded to one of the spouses, exclusively.
Under these conditions, if the separation or divorce was processed before a Judge or Court Clerk, no tax on documented legal acts was paid, for these asset adjudications, while if it was processed before a notary, if 1.5% was paid on the value of the foreclosed assets.
LET'S GIVE AN EXAMPLE
Don Ramón and Doña Joana get divorced and decide that he should keep the house in Barcelona, and she with the farmhouse they have in Baix Ampurdà, considering that both have a value equivalent to 400,000 euros.
Before Law 2/2016, of November 2, each of them should have paid a fee of 6,000 euros per AJD to the Generalitat (1.5% of the value of the property awarded), but only if the divorce was processed before a Notary , because only in notarial documents, this tax is accrued.
After Law 2/2016, of November 2, no one will have to pay anything for this award since the 100% of the fee is discounted, that is, the 100% of 6,000 euros. And for this reason, the choice of Notary Public or Court Clerk will be carried out not based on a criterion of cost, but of efficiency.
CAN WE SAY THAT SEPARATIONS AND DIVORCE BEFORE A NOTARY IN CATALONIA NO LONGER PAY DOCUMENTED LEGAL ACTS TAX?
Well unfortunately not.
In this entrance of the web www.notariabierta.com, I dealt with the deficiencies of the legislation on the tax on legal acts documents, pointing out, among others, the limitation of the regulatory powers of the Autonomous Communities, as they are specified in the fixing of the tax rate of notarial documents, deductions and bonuses of the fee.
It pointed out there that, since the Central Administration is not responsible for the return of the tax on legal documents, it does not pay the slightest interest in this tax, and does not legislate on it, while the Autonomous Communities that experience the reality of the tax, have very few means of adjusting it to social reality.
And this in what happens in the present case, that the bonus in installment of the 100% that we are dealing with will only apply to the properties that as a consequence of the separation or divorce are awarded to one of the spouses, as long as such assets are in Catalonia, while in another case, the tax legislation of the place where the property is located will have to be applied, all because the connection point for the accrual of this tax, according to article 33 of Law 22/2009, of December 18, by the one that regulates the financing system of the Autonomous Communities under the common regime, is the place where the Registry is located (property sic) in which the registration or annotation of the goods or acts must be carried out.
THE PONENT STRIP
Here in Lleida, we are in the area called the Franja de Ponent, a term with which it is identified, without going into many nuances, with the border area of Aragon and Catalonia. Many of the people who go up for the first time to the Alta Ribargorza and Valle d'Aran landscapes are surprised that during the journey the road N-230 It goes from province to province, between Aragon and Huesca, successively, on several occasions, and as a borderline case we have the town of Pont de Montanyana, where there are houses, so they say, where the living room is in Catalonia and the room is in bathroom, is located in Aragon. And all of this is recent, because before the construction of the Pantano Escales road, the Catalan Pyrenees was fully accessed through Aragon, through the so-called Bonansa road.
Human relations do not understand borders, and even less of the provincial ones, which is why it has always been very common for many towns in Aragon to have had the city of Lleida as their "capital", because it was more convenient for them than the one they had been assigned, for the provincial demarcation of Javier de Burgos dating from 1833.
This has motivated both citizens of Aragon and Catalonia to have properties in both autonomous communities, since times that can be considered distant.
Today tourism, which is still an industry with enormous strategic value for Spain, also means that citizens of Catalonia have economic interests in other parts of Spain, and vice versa that citizens of any part of Spain have interests in Catalonia.
Thus, for the purposes of an example, the Masía in L'Ampurdà owned by Don Ramón and Doña Joana can be perfectly substituted for a second residence in the town of Aneto (Huesca), or that Mariano and Pilar, residents of Zaragoza, have a second residence in Senet (Lleida), right in front of Aneto, and that they share walks, through which they will be in Aragon or in Catalonia, and sometimes with one foot in each place. And without going into such far-fetched cases, in gossip magazines we see characters who have a second residence in some idyllic place in Catalonia, such as the Costa Brava or the Pyrenees.
THE MAIN CAUSE OF DIVORCE IS MARRIAGE.
Well yes. And the one who does not want to marry voluntarily, is forcibly married, through mere cohabitation, if this is framed in the regime of common-law couples. And when two people separate, their assets are also divided, and when there is money involved, the tax authorities appear, which is based on a law, which, like the one we are discussing, generates consequences that are difficult to explain.
If the couples in the example were to separate (their marriages being subject to separation of property and with the other notarial divorce requirements) the one who would keep the assets of Catalonia would not pay, while the one who would keep the assets of Aragon would.
The Generalitat with this Law has done what was really in its power. He could not do more with his legislative powers, but divorces in Catalonia are not really fully subsidized, being able to benefit (which I do not see as a bad thing) other people with no or little ties to Catalonia.
I do not know if some members of the Parliament of Catalonia, with a markedly anti-system component, are aware that with this law they could be benefiting fiscally from a possible divorce of any character from the couche paper, who stays with the little house in the Vall de Ruda.
Be known to all citizens that the Parliament of Catalonia has approved and I, on behalf of
