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Notaries
Notaries
This may, or may not, be of intrest.....I found it in this weeks "News".
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Notaries holding back on offshore transfers?
All of a sudden, Portugal’s notaries are up to their eyeballs with work - exactly why they have suddenly become so busy is not clear. Following countless complaints made by readers, we decided to speak to Dutch resident Donald Barnard, who has his own ideas as to why it is proving impossible to make an appointment with a Notary for those looking to transfer ownership of their property from an offshore company into their own name.
Donald told The Portugal News that during the past few months he has contacted every Notary in the Algarve in an attempt to make an appointment. And in each case he has been told that the earliest slot available may be in mid-January next year. He has received exactly the same response from Notaries in Setúbal, Lisbon and Beja.
Failure to register his home in his own name before January 1st, 2004, will cost him upwards of 20,000 euros under the new property tax laws recently announced by the government. In addition, when he finally transfers ownership of the property he will be liable to capital gains tax, which he estimates will leave him having to pay tens of thousands of euros. Donald states the delay is a deliberate ploy by the Portuguese government to rake in millions of euros in property tax from foreign property owners to help balance its EU budget deficit.
“We are being treated like cattle”, he said, “nowhere else in Europe could this happen. Since Portugal joined the European Union things have deteriorated instead of improving.” He described how he and his wife have paid out a small fortune in legal fees and local government charges since buying their Portuguese farmhouse. It is also what he describes as “the minor rip-offs” that he finds infuriating. He produced a certificate issued by his local Town Hall, for which he had to pay nearly 200 euros, promising urgent action to resolve a house registration problem - two years on and he is still waiting.
He explained that he is not a rich man and has no private pension scheme to fall back on. Already he has had to sell one of his paintings, a family heirloom, to help pay off legal fees incurred as a result of the government’s proposed tax laws. Now facing the possibility of the government slapping a compulsory purchase order on his home at a knocked down price, he is in dire straits. “I have tried time and time again to fix an appointment with Notaries this side of Christmas”, he said, “but as soon as you mention the word ‘offshore’ they just clam up and shrug their shoulders.”
The Portugal News has made three attempts to arrange appointments with Notaries regarding properties owned by offshore companies. On each occasion we were told that the earliest date available would be the middle of January.
On the other side of the coin, it has emerged that wealthy property owners in the Almancil area have employed the services of two top Lisbon law firms to “pressurise” the Finance Ministry into altering some of the stipulations contained in Law Decree Act 287/2003 of November 12.
Meanwhile, the Algarve Hotel Association (AHETA) has also reinforced its stance against the law, calling on all its members to lodge complaints at Finance Departments in order to “block them with protests”.
The association estimates that during the first year (2004) of the new law, the Algarve stands to lose 400 million euros in foreign real estate investment. In subsequent years, it estimates losses in the region of 150 million euros per annum.
In a press conference, staged in conjunction with Almancil Business Association (AEA), the two associations claimed that should foreigners flood Finance Departments with complaints, it could force the government to suspend the law.
The associations further said they would call upon a specialist (whose name they declined to divulge) to have the law declared unconstitutional, arguing the new law does not respect the principle that all residents in Portugal should be treated equally.
The new law will result in an annual municipal tax on offshore properties being increased from two to five percent, while other properties will only face charges of between 0.2 and 0.5 percent on the value of the property.
Transfer tax will be 15 percent on properties purchased in an offshore company, while “onshore” homes will be levied a transfer tax of six percent.
According to a recent survey, it was revealed that Almancil has 2,417 properties registered as offshore companies, making it the area with the highest number of properties purchased under that regime in the country.
..........................................................................................................
Notaries holding back on offshore transfers?
All of a sudden, Portugal’s notaries are up to their eyeballs with work - exactly why they have suddenly become so busy is not clear. Following countless complaints made by readers, we decided to speak to Dutch resident Donald Barnard, who has his own ideas as to why it is proving impossible to make an appointment with a Notary for those looking to transfer ownership of their property from an offshore company into their own name.
Donald told The Portugal News that during the past few months he has contacted every Notary in the Algarve in an attempt to make an appointment. And in each case he has been told that the earliest slot available may be in mid-January next year. He has received exactly the same response from Notaries in Setúbal, Lisbon and Beja.
Failure to register his home in his own name before January 1st, 2004, will cost him upwards of 20,000 euros under the new property tax laws recently announced by the government. In addition, when he finally transfers ownership of the property he will be liable to capital gains tax, which he estimates will leave him having to pay tens of thousands of euros. Donald states the delay is a deliberate ploy by the Portuguese government to rake in millions of euros in property tax from foreign property owners to help balance its EU budget deficit.
“We are being treated like cattle”, he said, “nowhere else in Europe could this happen. Since Portugal joined the European Union things have deteriorated instead of improving.” He described how he and his wife have paid out a small fortune in legal fees and local government charges since buying their Portuguese farmhouse. It is also what he describes as “the minor rip-offs” that he finds infuriating. He produced a certificate issued by his local Town Hall, for which he had to pay nearly 200 euros, promising urgent action to resolve a house registration problem - two years on and he is still waiting.
He explained that he is not a rich man and has no private pension scheme to fall back on. Already he has had to sell one of his paintings, a family heirloom, to help pay off legal fees incurred as a result of the government’s proposed tax laws. Now facing the possibility of the government slapping a compulsory purchase order on his home at a knocked down price, he is in dire straits. “I have tried time and time again to fix an appointment with Notaries this side of Christmas”, he said, “but as soon as you mention the word ‘offshore’ they just clam up and shrug their shoulders.”
The Portugal News has made three attempts to arrange appointments with Notaries regarding properties owned by offshore companies. On each occasion we were told that the earliest date available would be the middle of January.
On the other side of the coin, it has emerged that wealthy property owners in the Almancil area have employed the services of two top Lisbon law firms to “pressurise” the Finance Ministry into altering some of the stipulations contained in Law Decree Act 287/2003 of November 12.
Meanwhile, the Algarve Hotel Association (AHETA) has also reinforced its stance against the law, calling on all its members to lodge complaints at Finance Departments in order to “block them with protests”.
The association estimates that during the first year (2004) of the new law, the Algarve stands to lose 400 million euros in foreign real estate investment. In subsequent years, it estimates losses in the region of 150 million euros per annum.
In a press conference, staged in conjunction with Almancil Business Association (AEA), the two associations claimed that should foreigners flood Finance Departments with complaints, it could force the government to suspend the law.
The associations further said they would call upon a specialist (whose name they declined to divulge) to have the law declared unconstitutional, arguing the new law does not respect the principle that all residents in Portugal should be treated equally.
The new law will result in an annual municipal tax on offshore properties being increased from two to five percent, while other properties will only face charges of between 0.2 and 0.5 percent on the value of the property.
Transfer tax will be 15 percent on properties purchased in an offshore company, while “onshore” homes will be levied a transfer tax of six percent.
According to a recent survey, it was revealed that Almancil has 2,417 properties registered as offshore companies, making it the area with the highest number of properties purchased under that regime in the country.