donation Archives - usatoday24

In Spain, getting a house has become an impossible mission. There are those who are receiving them as a donation in exchange for taking care of dogs

March 3, 2026 by usatoday24

It happened in Madrid. ‘Subject A’ barely has contact with his children but feels enormous affection for his dogs, so he decides to reach an agreement with ‘subject B’: he will donate his home in usufruct if he agrees to take care of his pets. If ‘Subject B’ complies, no problem. If the animals end up unattended, you risk having the donation revoked. That of ‘A’ and ‘B’ is just one case commented a few days ago to The Newspaper (EPE) by a lawyer with an office in the capital, but it reflects a larger phenomenon: the increase in donationsincluding conditional ones. And it makes sense. What has happened? that in full housing crisiswith rental prices and m2 climbing to levels that remember to those of the brick ‘boom’, each time is more common meet donation signatures in notarial offices. Money is donated. And homes are donated. It’s nothing new. The trend has been going on for some time now. some time and it is part of a broader phenomenon that we have been talking about for some time, the ‘Great transfer’. What is striking is that just revealed EPE: not only do donations in general skyrocket, so do ‘conditional’ donations, those in which the agreement is subject to a series of previously agreed upon requirements. Donations with conditions? Exactly. Tax authorities defines them as agreements by which the donation is conditioned to certain requirements. “For it to be valid, the donee must be able to execute the condition or it must be an event with a high probability of occurring,” clarify the Treasury, which thus differentiates it from other types such as ‘pure’ or ‘remunerative donation’. Its dynamic is therefore simple: donor and donee reach an agreement on which the donation is conditional. It is fulfilled, perfect. If not fulfilled, the good returns to the donor. That is the logic, although in practice there are certain nuances. For example, the donation does not always have to take place at the same time. The donated property can be delivered when the agreement is signed or left in suspense waiting for the agreed conditions to be met. What do people agree? EPE has spoken with several offices in the Community of Madrid and has come across agreements of all kinds. For example, a grandmother who donates her house to her granddaughter in exchange for her finishing her degree and studying a master’s degree, donations to caregivers or (probably the most striking of all) transfers that are conditional on the care of animals. “There are cases in which the house is donated with the condition that the recipient takes care of their pet for as long as it is alive,” clarifies Manuel Hernándezby Vilches Abogados. “This guarantees (the donor) that if they die, their pet will be taken care of. It can also be done by inheritance, with a conditional legacy.” Is it just theory? No. As an example, Hernández cites the case with which this report began: a man from Madrid decided to donate his home to a friend in exchange for her taking care of his three dogs. “She had little connection with her children and was very fond of animals, so she donated her house in usufruct to a younger friend, if she would take care of her dogs. If this condition was not met, the revocation procedure could be initiated,” says the expert. The phenomenon is increasingly common and part of the “humanization” of pets. Is that easy? In practice, the agreements have fine print. It I remembered recently in COPE the lawyer Carolina Florez de Quiñones, who recognizes this type of conditional transfers, just like those directed to caregivers of the elderly; but he warns: “No one can leave alive what he cannot leave dead.” What does that mean? That the will of the person who donates is one of the key factors to take into account, but not the only one. Another is forced heirs. A living donation that damages your ‘legitimate status’ may end up being considered ‘unhelpful’. Are there more formulas? Yes. Another formula that has become popular is the donation of housing in bare propertywhich basically consists of transferring ownership of an asset without the rights of use and enjoyment. If we are talking about an apartment, that means that the donor can pass it on to his children, grandchildren, nephews or whoever he considers, but without giving up the usufruct of the home for the rest of his life. That is, the donor continues to enjoy the apartment as if nothing had changed, which implies that he or she can live in it or even rent it. Have they increased that much? The donations, definitely. In October the General Council of Notaries (CGN) published a report which shows that between 2017 and 2024 housing donations skyrocketed by almost 68%: from 32,623 they went to 54,735. During the first half of 2025 alone, it counted 27,000 donations. At the same time, notaries recorded an increase in inherited homes. The backdrop is the rising cost of housing and the difficulties of access for young people, which partly explains why grandparents, parents, uncles… come to the ‘rescue’ of the new generations, facilitating their access to the market. What do the notaries say? “The data show a clear increase in donations and inheritances of homes from older people to the following generations,” confirms the CGN. In case there were any doubts about its growing weight, the group also remembers that the number of inherited and donated homes in 2024 would be equivalent, overall, at 64% of purchase and sale operations. Not only housing is donated. Money is also transferred from the pockets of grandparents or parents to grandchildren/children to make it easier for them to get a mortgage. The question remains as to how many of these donations come with conditions. Images | Pam Mene (Unsplash), Yen Vu (Unsplash) and General Council of Notaries In Xataka | There are rich people so bored with their … Read more

Living for free in your parents’ house does not imply a donation of the home

February 26, 2026 by usatoday24

He house price It is one of the main obstacles to the emancipation of young people in Spain. According to data According to the Spanish Youth Council, only 15.2% of young people can afford to live outside the family home. Of them, 57.9% do so in rented apartments and a third of these young people share a flat with other young people to be able to bear the expenses. In this context, it is not strange to find people over 30 years old living with their parents. However, according to have confirmed the Ministry of Finance to VerifyRTVEit is false that living for free in your parents’ home, or in “any property of your parents”, can be considered “as a donation”. The Treasury makes it clear: there is no donation. Both from the Ministry of Finance like from the union of Technicians of the Ministry of Finance (GESTHA) point out that there is no tax or legal change that penalizes children for residing in the family home. Sources from the Ministry of Finance confirmed to damn.es that “there have been no legal changes or changes in the orientation of administrative actions since the IRPF existed, nor has it ever been considered a fiscal risk.” Carlos Cruzado, president of the GESTHA union, explained to RTVE that no taxes or duties apply additional taxes for the simple fact that an adult shares a home with his or her parents. Donation is a change of ownership, not use. The reason why no charge is made is because, simply, when a child lives with his or her parents, no transfer of assets occurs. The consensual use that is made of it changes, not the ownership. This change of use between family members without financial compensation does not fit into any of the assumptions of the Inheritance and Donation Taxso neither parents nor children they must pay that tax. The professor of Financial Law Rosa María Galán pointed to damn.es that, in the case of children without economic resources to survive on their own, the article 142 of the Civil Code obliges parents to cover the support, housing, clothing and medical care of their children. There is no need to argue for free coexistence since providing it is a legal obligation. It even applies to second homes. This same logic applies even when parents and children do not live in the same property, but, for example, the parents live in the primary home, and the children in a second residence owned by the parents. According to Cruzado, the Treasury “understands that there may be a free transfer and does not allocate a return at market value.” In this case, the parents are taxed the same as if the home were empty due to the imputation of real estate income in personal income tax, the same obligations that already exist. for having a second residence without regular use. In this case, the owner of the home must pay a tax of 2% of the cadastral value of the property, and in some cases is reduced to 1.1%. That is, what is taxed is the condition of second home ownership, not the fact that children live in the home or not. The transfer of use is not a donation: the distinction that changes everything. As and as explained José María Salcedo, managing partner of the tax firm Salcedo Tax Litigation to Idealistiche article 6.5 of the Personal Income Tax Law establishes a presumption of onerousness. This means that the Treasury tends to assume that any transfer has a price. However, this presumption admits evidence to the contrary, and the most common instrument to prove it is the bailment contracta document that formalizes the loan of the property without financial consideration and that, according to Cruzado, the Treasury “does not usually carry out these checks”, although it serves as a guarantee to justify “free of charge the right to use someone else’s property for a certain period of time.” In Xataka | There is a less painful solution so that an inheritance does not become a ruin for the heirs: renounce it Image | Pexels (Kampus Production)

Helping children with up to 200,000 euros to buy an apartment does not count as a donation

February 12, 2026 by usatoday24

The housing crisis is one of the main problems for young people (and not so young) in Spain. In this context, family support in the purchase of a home is a key element: many young people need the help of their parents or relatives to be able to assume the entrance of a house. The main obstacle to this family aid is that the Treasury consider it as a donation and, therefore, is subject to tax obligations. A measure of the Government of Extremadura that has entered into force in 2026 seeks to eliminate this obstacle and allows parents or direct relatives of young people can donate to them up to a maximum of 200,000 euros without having to pay the Inheritance and Donation Tax. However, this exemption is not a blank check. There are strict rules that must be followed to avoid a tax scare. Donation for first home. The Government of Extremadura has updated its regulations on the Inheritance and Donation Tax (ISD) to allow a 100% reduction in this tax for the first 200,000 euros donated to descendants, provided that this donation is intended for the purchase of your first habitual residence in Extremadura. He article 21 of the new tax regulations establishes an exempt limit of 200,000 euros that covers cash donations as help for the purchase of housing, but also extends to direct transmission of homes or plots of land to build it (in this case it is limited to 120,000 euros). In this way, the exempt amount of 180,000 euros that was already contemplated by the previous regulations is increased and new requirements are added. It is not a blank check. To benefit from this exemption, the recipient must be under 36 years of age when the donation is formalized and tax base in personal income tax It cannot exceed 28,000 euros individually or 45,000 euros jointly. This focuses help on young people with medium or low incomes who do not have the necessary capital to make a down payment or build their own home. This exemption does not apply if the recipient already has assets greater than the first tranche of the state ISD scale, set at more than 402,678.11 euros. Furthermore, the donation must be registered in a public deed before a notary, specifying that it is intended for the first home and habitual residence, the purchase of which must occur within a maximum period of six months. On the other hand, the beneficiary must be listed as the owner of the home for a minimum of five subsequent years, except for death or justified causes such as job transfer. Other conditions to take into account are that that first home and habitual residence must be in Extremadura, which has a double usefulness since it not only contributes to eliminating fiscal barriers to facilitate this donation, but also seeks the reduce depopulation of the territory. Practical cases. Suppose that parents donate 190,000 euros to their 32-year-old daughter in Cáceres to buy her first apartment in February 2026. The beneficiary meets the age, income and personal income tax requirements, formalizes the donation before a notary and signs the purchase of her home on time. This family must complete the Inheritance and Donation Tax settlement process, but the payment will be zero euros as it is 100% subsidized. However, the daughter must live in and be the owner (even if it is shared ownership) of the apartment she has purchased for at least five years. If you sell it after a year due to an unjustified move, you will lose the tax credit and must regularize the donation with a surcharge. In Xataka | The Great Wealth Transfer: the movement from boomers to millennials that will transfer millions between generations Image | Unsplash (Christian Dubovan)

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

July 7, 2025 by usatoday24

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. In Xataka | Hacienda is watching covert donations: 100,000 euros for selling a floor below the market price Image | Pexels (Kaboomps.com)

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