Tax disadvantage for foreign property owners in selling their homes was illegal. The Spanish Treasury has for years to highly taxed foreigners on the sale of their real estate, this claims in the millions are threatening the State. Tax refunds are citizens from the EU and Switzerland, which have sold a property in Spain between beginning of 1997 and the end of 2006, according to a decision of the European Court of Justice. The Court ruled that the Spanish Government wrongly had taxed the capital gains of non-Spanish, private seller with 35 percent, as Spaniards, however, had to pay just 15 percent tax on the profits of their sales. The different tax treatment for the foreign property owners is discriminatory according to the instance of the EU, therefore, they are entitled to appropriate repayments (court file number C-562/07). The Valencia-based law firm, Costa, Alvarez, Manglano & Associates, which represents the interests of those affected, has for the first 100 European Get citizens, mostly from the UK, already repayments by the Spanish State. A focal point was established in Germany for the German-speaking world. Around 150 000 former property owners, is believed, could have these recoveries.

Average up to 20 000 euros should be refunded. The countdown is running however. Claims must be made within one year after the verdict. Refund requests can be submitted only by mid-November in Spanish courts..