Buildings acquired by credit institutions as part of a judicial sale or through a date to fulfill the repayment of their own credits are exempt from IMI for three years, subject to certain rules.
According to the Tributary and Customs Authority (AT), properties acquired by credit institutions “in the context of the repayment of own credit and held for sale” are subject to the regime of the IMI Code, which stipulates that the tax is due through “the 3rd year following, including, the year in which a building has begun to appear in the inventory of a company seeking its sale”.
This understanding of the AT is reflected in binding information, now published, in which the requesting taxpayer (a credit institution) asked the tax authorities whether this type of company can benefit from the temporary suspension of IMI “in relation to buildings acquired in repayment of credits recorded under non-current assets held for sale”.
In its reply to AT, it points out that in these situations, i.e. when the acquisition of real estate is at stake because the owner is unable to pay the loan, this does not mean that the acquisition of real estate and the sale of it is an autonomous activity, separate from the main activity, “but rather a form of carrying out the main activity itself”, since it is about “the need to complete the process of repaying own credit, which is the essential core of the banking activity “.
For example, the IMI scheme for suspension of payments provided for by law applies to banks, in the context of the repayment of own credit and held for sale, “provided that the accounting requirements and prudential rules of the Bank of Portugal are respected “.
“To this end, the applicant must provide a document from its accounting information system that unequivocally shows the date it was requested, the identification of the property and the date it was assigned as a fixed asset held for sale”, refers to the same information from the AT, who also added that for the application of the regime “it is not required” that the banking institution is registered in the register of taxpayers as carrying out the activity of buying and selling real estate.
Source: DN
