According to the Tax and Customs Authority (AT) the concept of entity provided for in the article of the IMI Code that contemplates increased tax rates [article 112.º] "integrates, among others, natural persons domiciled in a territory with a privileged taxation regime".

The IMI Code provides that an increased rate of 7.5% of this tax applies to properties owned by taxpayers who have tax domicile in a country, territory or region subject to a more favourable tax regime or which are owned by an "entity controlled or controlled, directly or indirectly, by an entity that has tax domicile in a country, territory or region subject to a more favourable tax regime".

The same article expressly excludes from this increase in the rate, properties that are owned by individuals. But the set of questions that several taxpayers asked the AT aimed to understand whether this exclusion applies when the property is owned by an entity that is not resident in a tax haven but is or will be controlled by a natural person residing in one of those territories.

Although there are several situations raised in requests for binding information from the AT, the tax authorities' conclusion is similar and always in the sense that the increased IMI rate will apply.