Paying your local taxes

Even if you chose to ignore the other rules and regulations, you must attend to this. The local tax, IBI (Impuesto de bienes immuebles) is effectively the Spanish equivalent of Council Tax in the UK. It is based on the assessed value of your property and if you do not pay it the failure to pay will catch up with you some day. When you come to sell the property you will have to pay and non-payment in the past can result in some quite hefty fines being levied. The good thing is that compared to similar taxes in the UK the IBI is very reasonable indeed, so there really is no excuse not to pay it.

Go to the town hall. Sign the appropriate documents and a direct debit form for the IBI and then just forget about it. At least in this respect your house will be legal. You will not be liable for fines and when you come to sell at some stage in the future and you will have no problems.