If the question is whether to add a child as a co -owner in a bank account is donation, the Treasury has given the clear answer: no

The donation between parents and children is as thin as the edge of a razor in which any movement of funds is susceptible to being interpreted as a donation and, therefore, be subject to the payment of a donation tax.

One of the most common cases is that of elderly parents that include their children as co -students in a bank account, a movement that could be interpreted by the Treasury as a Donation covert to children. A recent one Binding consultation The General Directorate of Taxes clarifies this doubt officially and indicates that, in these cases, there is no effective donation.

The greatest fears. The situation is quite common, especially among older people and their children. A parent has a bank account and include one or more of his children as holders of that account To facilitate management of their finances. Before the resolution of the General Directorate of Taxes of April 8, 2025, the Treasury technicians could interpret that both holders became the owners of 50% of the deposited cash.

Therefore, that made the new holder obtained a patrimonial increase and, since it came from its parent, it could be interpreted as not declared donation and the Treasury could claim the payment of the donation tax.

The new doctrine of the Treasury. The new resolution of the General Directorate of Taxes, an organ dependent on the Ministry of Finance, establishes a different criteria for those cases. Based on different jurisprudence of the Supreme Court, it establishes that, the fact that a person is co -owned by a bank account does not imply that the capital to which he has access is his property, simply has permission to Have money and operate with him.

“Cotitularity simply implies the availability of funds by any of the holders, without determining the existence of a condominium, and less in equal parts, on this balance,” abounds the new resolution.

In addition, and what is more important, taxes does not automatically assume that 50% of the deposited funds are the holders, but that each holder owns the percentage that has contributed, which does not imply an automatic enrichment of the other cotular.

Being alive is not the same as being dead. Taxes recognizes co -school as an “agreement with the financial entity” that does not affect the property of cash, which allows the free availability of the money from that account according to the limits of that financial agreement (indistinct use or signing the holders). That is, in the face of the bank, both holders can use the deposit without taking into account what percentage each party has contributed.

However, this unlimited availability only computes while both parties are alive. When one of the co -students dies, the mechanisms applicable to the Precept of article 1.138 of the Civil Code in terms of joint obligations, so “the bank’s credit should be presumed to be divided into as many parts as the debtors were, so that at the death of a co -owner, both owned by half of the sum deposited in the bank,” says the resolution.

In this way, and if no documents are demonstrated that proves a higher percentage of the surviving holder, 50% of the deposit becomes part of the inheritance and its property goes to be of his heirs.

It is not donation, but with nuances. In its conclusions, Taxes ensures that as a general rule “does not necessarily imply the existence of donation, if it is not accompanied by the requirements set forth.” This implies that by adding cotitular to an existing account, the requirements of the donation act that are specified in the Article 618 of the Civil Code: “Donation is an act of liberality by which a person has one thing for free in favor of another, that accepts it.” That is, neither the holder expresses a will to assign, nor the co -one explicitly accepts it.

However, as they point out In the newspaper Segrethat “necessarily” leaves the door open to the fact that it can be considered donation if it can be demonstrated that the cotular has not used the funds For your personal benefit with express consent of the holder, since that would express a will to assign a good and the acceptance of the same. Conditions that define a donation.

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