Sending a Bizum to a child to pay the rent, make groceries or pay for a vacation has become a gesture made by thousands of families in Spain. Now, if we look at the Tax Agency’s point of view, not all money transfers between parents and children receive the same treatment. This is explained by inheritance and family lawyer Laura Lobo, who clarifies when these money transfers are part of the family’s support and when the Treasury considers them donations for which the Treasury should be taxed.
As the lawyer explains through a video uploaded to her social networks, the line that separates both situations does not depend on the amount, but on the vital and economic situation of the person receiving the money. “Many questions of this type have come: ‘Hey, but what if they are minors? Or they are of legal age, but they are university students and perhaps they live away from home and you have to pay their rent’. In those cases are they also donations?”, asks the expert. The short answer is no, but with legal nuances to take into account.
The legal obligation of family support
When the money is intended to cover the basic expenses of minor children or young people who continue studying and lack their own income, the Treasury does not consider it a donation.
As Lobo explains, in these cases “it falls within the obligation that parents have to support their children.” This statement refers to article 142 of the Civil Code, which establishes that food is understood to be everything that is essential for sustenance, housing, clothing and medical care. Furthermore, the law specifies that these meals also include education and instruction while the child is a minor and even afterward, as long as he or she has not completed his or her training for reasons not attributable to him or her.
As it is a reciprocal obligation between ascendants and descendants (article 143), payments for the rent of a student apartment or the maintenance of a dependent child are ordinary family expenses, completely exempt from donation tax burdens.
When does the Treasury monitor
The situation changes radically when the descendant is already economically emancipated. “When would it be considered a donation? Well, the transfer or Bizum of money that a father makes to his son, when he is of legal age and financially independent,” says the lawyer.
That is, if the child already has a job with which he supports himself, but his parents decide to send him money to help him “pay the rent, the mortgage, the car or whatever”, the fiscal panorama is transformed. “In these cases, the Treasury can understand that it is a donation,” concludes Lobo.
In tax terms, Law 29/1987 on Inheritance and Donation Tax is clear in this regard: the acquisition of goods and rights by donation or any other legal transaction free of charge and “inter vivos” constitutes a taxable event. Therefore, any delivery of money without consideration to a child who is no longer economically dependent on his parents loses the consideration of “alimony” and becomes a liberality subject to taxation.
Be careful with banking concepts
Although the Tax Agency has tools to track banking movements, it does not usually pursue sporadic micropayments (for example, a causal bizum of 50 euros). On the other hand, periodic transfers or transfers of considerable amounts intended for the payment of mortgages or the purchase of vehicles between economically independent family members can raise alerts from the treasury.