The Supreme Court opens the way to challenge the cadastral value with the receipt of the IBI or capital gains

A flood of claims is expected against the municipalities that did not begin the cadastral revaluation of the properties

The town councils have received a new judicial blow that will affect their public coffers. The Litigation Chamber of the Supreme Court has issued a recent ruling (which you can read by clicking here) that allows taxpayers to challenge the receipt of the IBI (tax on real estate) or the liquidation of capital gains (tax on the increase in land ) if the cadastral value attributed is not correct.

An exceptional solution because it breaks the general rule according to which "if the tax settlement is challenged, it is not possible to discuss the cadastral value that has become final." This decision may provoke a wave of claims from owners of properties located on land classified as urban but whose development was never approved, and which generate large IBI receipts and capital gains settlements.

A situation that had become entrenched

The situation of these taxpayers, affected by an overvaluation of their property, had become entrenched. The town councils hid behind the fact that these indices (on which the amount of municipal taxes is determined) are the responsibility of the Cadastre, and that, until it reviewed the classification of the properties, they should continue collecting the corresponding amounts.

City councils cannot, they argued, cancel or authorize cadastral values. An anomalous situation since the Supreme Court already established in 2014 (in a ruling whose text you can consult here) that not all developable land could be considered urban for cadastral purposes. In this sense, he stated that the lands projected in the urban plan but that had not undergone subsequent development could only be classified and valued as rural for the purposes of IBI and capital gains.

The responses of the city councils, a mystery

Now it remains to be seen how the city councils comply with this decision, and how they face the barrage of administrative, economic-administrative and contentious-administrative claims that are expected to occur.

The Supreme Court's resolution now puts an end to it, allowing the owners of these properties to discuss the classification and the cadastral value assigned when claiming the tax receipt. As the Chamber explains in its ruling, "exceptional situations allow exceptional solutions."

In their ruling, the magistrates interpret the precepts of the Law regulating local treasuries that refer to cadastral management and collection of IBI and come to the conclusion that they do not oppose the possibility of challenging IBI settlements by discussing the cadastral value of the IBI. property even if it has acquired finality through administrative means.

In other words, the cadastral valuation can be indirectly challenged by claiming the tax receipt in exceptional situations. This is so, the magistrates explain, because the principle of legal certainty must give way to other higher principles that, in certain situations, prevail.