The Inland Revenue is all set to receive information from Spanish Notaries and Registrars.

The Spanish Tax Authorities and the "Catastro" (Cadastre, or Official Statistical Centre of Property Values in Spain) announce their intention to join forces and clamp down on real estate fraud, just when the fight against fraud together with the further control of property conveyance arise as electoral projects.

An announcement published yesterday by the Official State Bulletin "BOE" states that these organisms will have reciprocal access to their respective data bases. The resolution promises a "stable data-exchange system" that will facilitate the detection of undeclared sales, provide access to Notarial records and Registry information as well as speed up the attachment of embargos.

The Spanish Inland revenue will have direct access to the data-base of the Catastro that has been revised and improved during the past two years, for the purpose of obtaining full, up-to-date information on all property owners. This exchange of information will also apply to the over 41 million rural plots with an official value of 23,373 million euros and to more than 28 million developed plots with an officially registered value of 979.286 million euros.

With their respective data bases now brought into line (up until two years ago the Spanish Tax Authorities used the fiscal identity numbers of taxpayers and the Catastro used a coding system to identify each real estate property) the Inland Revenue will be able to verify the properties belonging to any one taxpayer, the type of rights he/she has over the property, the percentage of ownership of the various owners in the event of joint or multi ownership, as well as physical details of the properties themselves such as their reference number at the Catastro, address, use, date of construction, officially declared value, etc.

Furthermore the Catastro will provide the Spanish Tax Authorities with the official register of the payers of rates including the ownerships of the developed properties up to the 31st of December of each corresponding year.

Any non-declared conveyances of real estate or attempts to evade embargos will become significantly more difficult to hide as a result of this project.

The benefits for both organisms is significant, in so far as, for example, the Inland Revenue will be providing the Catastro with the fiscal identification numbers of taxpayers so that they can clear their database of any duplicate or erroneous information. Furthermore, among other information, the Tax Authorities will have a list of the properties with no known owners at their disposal which will enable them to detect and intervene possible cases of fraud.

This exchange of information will also prove to be beneficial for the average taxpayer who fulfils his tax obligations with the Inland Revenue, for example, if he were to make a claim regarding incorrect information recorded for any property owned, the Tax Authorities will automatically take charge of notifying any rectifications made directly to the Catastro.

According to the resolution published in the official bulletin yesterday the Spanish Tax Authorities will furthermore provide the Catastro with monthly reports on any fines paid for minor tax infringements, or funds received in payments of tariffs on new registrations or certificates confirming official property values and other transactions.

The resolution of the Tax Authorities also contemplates the creation of a Mixed Coordination and Control Commission to coordinate the exchange of data, to be formed by ten representatives, five from the Inland Revenue and the other five from the Catastro.

The functions of this board or commission will include the possibility to extend, modify or withdraw any data exchange and to seek responsibilities in the event of any undue or unauthorised access to their respective data bases.

One of the main priorities of the Spanish Inland Revenue is the fight against real estate fraud, who is conscious that the housing industry, with more than 600,000 new properties built per year is one of the industries that that moves the most black money in Spain.