A new round of inspections is being launched by the AADE, targeting property cases that pose a high risk of tax evasion and money laundering. The checks are focused on cash transactions, undeclared transfers in 2019, as well as older cases of parental transfers, inheritances and donations.

The files opened have been selected through an automated risk analysis model, which utilizes both internal and external sources of information. Priority is given to cases that expire at the end of 2025 and transfers in which anomalies were recorded in the payment method or reported data.

The focus is on transfers of real estate with provisional values, especially in areas outside the objective values, where the difference between the declared value and the tax office’s pre-assessment exceeds 30% or where the pre-assessed value exceeds 100,000 euros. In these cases, the price, the area of the property and the legality of the exemption from transfer tax are scrutinized. In addition, cases of parental transfers for first homes, where strict conditions are required to be met, and transfers that received a first home exemption based on specific value thresholds are also examined.

A significant volume of audits also relates to inheritances, donations and parental benefits involving securities, shares, shares and business interests in unlisted companies, as well as the correct application of the special tax on real estate. Emphasis is also placed on cases where cash purchases of real estate were recorded in recent years, before the obligation to pay a price through the banking system was implemented.

It is indicative that in 2022 alone, 338,511 property transfers with a total price of €27.74 billion were carried out, of which 42,613 were paid exclusively in cash. This fact is considered extremely critical by the tax authorities, who see cash as a “suspicion” of undeclared income and money laundering.

Notaries are not exempt from the scope of the checks either, as they are checked to see if they have ensured that they have a valid ENFIA certificate when drawing up the contracts. The ENFIA certificate is a prerequisite for any property transfer and ensures that the liable party has paid or settled the ENFIA for the last five or six years, as the case may be. If the transfer transaction takes place after the new ENFIA for the current year has been issued, the certificate must also cover the current year.

According to official data from the AADE, in 2024 the audit centers and the Center for the Control of High Wealth Taxpayers conducted 1,107 audits in capital tax cases, assessing taxes and fines of €12.47 million. Property checks are intensifying as authorities estimate that hundreds of cases of undeclared property and tax evasion can be detected through old transactions.