A 2002 ruling states it clearly: where an insurance company is offering life insurance in Spain, the beneficiary of the policy is to pay taxes in Spain, whether his status is one of residency or non-residency.
According to the ruling:
Where the policy holder and the beneficiary of the policy are different persons, any payments made under the policy will pay Spanish IHT, irrespective of whether the beneficiary is a tax resident in Spain, or not, pursuant to the provision of Act 29/1987 of the 18th of December and the Royal Decree 1629/1991, of the 8th of November, which approves the Inheritance Tax Regulation.
Of course, it was not in the interest of Lex Life, Nordea Life and Pensions, Jyske Bank etc. to tell people the truth, was it?
How best to further your business in this country by cheating foreign property owners, hey?
At least, you did study carefully and took into account the legendary Spanish laid-backness, we’ll give you that, but for sure, this scam will soon be properly picked up…!
Well done again erva for picking up this very important piece of legislation. There seems little doubt that these banks togehter with their insurance partners, appear once again to have received from their lawyers/insurance advisors misinformation OR HAVE THEY !!!!! Having read some of the documents and advice given to Nordea by their advisors leaves me to the conclusion that perhaps these were either ignored or their advisors manipulated the reports to suit the bank. It must be said though that the tax advice I have seen were dated after Nordea Bank stopped selling these obnoxious equity release products in Spain. No doubt due to the controversy these schemes have caused in Spain.They have, since receiving these reports from their advisors, seem to be attempting to move the goal posts or simply to close the door after the horse has bolted. The truth of the matter is, from all I have read on this site there is no question that at the time their sales promotion was to either mitigate or evade IHT & Wealth Taxes. That they cannot deny.
I could not agree more Harry G. We were all told that there would be significant IHT savings if one signed up to this scheme. Why else would we contemplate doing it. All our homes were mortgage free. Why on earth should anyone get involved with equity release if not solely for this reason. Every erva member I have spoke to so far did it for this reason.
This is very interesting. In fact I was speaking with a girl friend of mine the other day about these equity release schemes and she told me some thing very interesting. My friend stated that an aquaintance of hers knew some one who was involved in an equity release scheme, her partner of which had died some time ago. She stated that there was no Inheritance Tax problem with the Spanish Authoriities. She was somewhat vague but said she would find out more of which bank was involved. Needless to say I will keep you posted.
Sarah. Please refer to a post by the ERVA Team on the post – Nordea Bank topping the dishonest list. We urgently need your further input. Many Thanks