Believe it or not, I still come across property transactions where one of the parties, usually the seller, asks for part of the sale price to be paid in cash or, even worse, paid with a bank transfer but not shown on the deeds. The first one is flagrantly illegal but the second is simply absurd.

No matter what the estate agent may say (“this is normal in Spain”, “it is just for the furniture so no need to declare it”, “you will save money in tax”, etc,) it is clearly illegal. Any payments made by the purchaser towards the purchase of the property should be declared in the deed of sale and purchase. If the seller wants to break the price in two and separate the value of the property from the value of the furniture this should also be reflected in the deeds. The price of the property will be subject to a higher stamp duty tax (around 7%-10% depending on the region) while the price of the furniture will be subject to a lower rate of stamp duty tax (around 4% depending on the region) but it is paramount to pay the relevant tax. If not, the purchase of furniture for a relevant amount of money without tax being paid can be considered tax fraud.

With regards to the cash in hand solution to avoid any tax, let´s be honest, what is the seller going to do with 20,000€ or 30,000€ in cash? Specially if the seller lives in the UK. Is he/she going to carry the money on the plane in a briefcase like in a Guy Ritchie film? (No offense Guy. Actually, I am big fan and “The Gentlemen” was a lot of fun, specially the chicken dress scene).

Although, as indicated above, if you are selling your property in Spain and accept to receive a transfer of money into your bank account that will not be declared in the deeds you will put yourself in trouble with the Spanish Tax man as there will be no evidence of the origin of the said amount of money.

The above is not only a bad idea for the seller but also for the buyer. Illegality aside, the buyer would end up paying more capital gains tax when selling the property in the future. This will force the seller to either do the same and ask for the under-declaration of the price when selling or sell for its market price and pay a higher Capital Gains Tax than it should.

Whatever the approach is, the risks are too high. We are not in Costa del Sol in 1998 where transactions like this involved hefty amounts in cash in hand. We are in 2025 and the banks, notaries and the Spanish Tax office do not have the same approach as before so don´t risk it. Just say “gracias pero no, gracias”.