Last week, we received an email similar to this:-
I am presently in the UK but have received a notification via the lawyer who dealt with the purchase of my property. The letter indicates that I did not pay the appropriate transfer tax on my property which I bought for 72,500 euros as they have valued it at 165,050.64 euros, therefore, I should now pay an extra large bill.
My lawyer says I need to submit the allegation within the 10 specified days and she has advised that I need to have the property valued. It has been suggested by several people who have experienced this problem that I should pay the tax levy as it will cost more to fight it. However, I believe the valuation is grossly over estimated.
The lawyer who dealt with the purchase is based in another area and I don’t believe that she is in a good position to deal with the matter due to the distance. I am quite shocked at the hefty added value they have imposed on the property. I would be grateful if you could offer your opinion how to proceed and the possible financial implications. The amount they are requesting is going to cause me some difficulty so I wish to ensure that I am following the correct procedure for my situation. The price I paid was the average price that other similar properties were being sold in November 2015 and I believed that this was around the market price for this type of property. I was not aware that the Tax Office could impose this extra tax by having the ability to revalue the property. I hope you can offer some advice. Thank you.
We explained that when she purchased the property the lawyer should have warned her that any difference in the deeds price and the tax value (which can be checked) would lead to a probable notification of this additional purchase tax. Our solicitor can appeal for her and she chose to do this. The way he defends his cases is not based on a previous High Court of Justice decision. He has been doing this for a long time. The lady decided to go ahead and we await news in many months from the Tax office, but we have usually been successful