The Treasury has made clear a very common doubt that usually occurs in sales, donations and housing inheritances, and is the one who must assume the payment of the Real Estate Tax (IBI) when the property changes ownership in the middle of the year.
The General Directorate of Taxes (DGT) resolved this issue in a binding consultation published in February 2025. In it it makes it clear that the IBI of each exercise, It must be paid by the owner who appears as the owner on January 1 of the current year, even if the home is sold or inherited at another time in that same year.
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The IBI for the year of the sale is paid by the seller
The DGT recalls that the IBI is regulated in articles 60 to 77 of the Consolidated Text of the Local Finance Law (TRLRHL), and that article 75 establishes that the tax accrues on January 1 and the tax period coincides with the calendar year.
This means that the person who owns the property on that date is the one who must pay the tax for the entire year, regardless of whether ownership is later transferred.
For example, if an owner sells his house on June 15, 2025, he must pay the IBI for that year, since he was the owner on January 1. Even if the buyer has already lived in the house since the summer, he is not legally obliged to pay the tax for that year, unless otherwise agreed in the sales contract. Sometimes it happens that both parties agree to prorate the receipt according to the months of enjoyment, but for tax purposes, the taxpayer continues to be the owner at the beginning of the year.
Furthermore, if the owner dies before the city council issues the receipt, the tax must be paid from the inheritance, that is, it is paid by the heirs of the deceased, but by the assets of the estate.
The new owner will start paying the following year
The Treasury also clarifies that changes in ownership in the Cadastre, whether by sale, donation or inheritance, only have effects on the IBI as of January 1 of the following year, so the new owner will not appear as a taxpayer in the tax until the following year.
Based on the previous example, the buyer who purchased the house in June 2025 will not be a taxable person until January 1, 2026. From that moment on, he will already appear as the owner for the accrual of the tax. From then on, he will be the one who receives the IBI receipt and must be responsible for the annual payment.