Council tax problems

According to the PP party, there are around 200 houses in Bigastro which do not pay the Impuesto de Bienes Inmuebles (Council tax) including four houses belonging to councilmen. They say that there are 32 houses, completed over two years ago, which are not regularised i.e. they haven't been granted Cédulas de Habitabilidad and therefore don't have mains electricity and water. Aurelio Murcia, the spokesperson for the PP party, admits that, even though he's had the tax bill for his house, he hasn't paid it yet.

Originally we had a problem with our IBI because the Valor Catastral for the house had been incorrectly calculated. It took over a year and a visit to the Catastra Office in Alicante to sort that out. The final demand we had from SUMA told us to either pay the tax or take our car, along with the documents and keys, to their office as payment. Thankfully that wasn't necessary once the value of our house had been corrected.

So we ended up paying our IBI for 2005, 2006 and 2007 this year. In comparison with English Council Taxes the sums are relatively small and affordable.

I remember when the Socialist Militant Council in Liverpool advised people not to pay the iniquitous Poll Tax which had been imposed by Thatcher's Conservative Government. That decision nearly bankrupted the city. I dare say that Liverpool is still owed millions of that uncollected tax.

I don't suppose non payment of IBI from 200 houses would bankrupt Bigastro but it will make a sizeable hole in its budget. In any case, SUMA probably haven't got space to park all those cars.