This year's annual income tax declaration period has just begun and Hacienda are getting tough!

Hacienda, the Spanish tax office, are sweeping through the internet looking for adverts for holiday rentals and sending out warning letters to taxpayers who they suspect are renting out a second property and not declaring the income.

In a bid to control cash rental activities, the tax office is mainly targeting people who advertise their property on the Internet through various property portals, and is particularly interested in holiday or short-term rentals

Hacienda intends to add all these adverts for property to let to their database so that they can check to see who hasn't declared any rental income.

If anyone has advertised a property to rent via the Internet, it is likely that they will receive a written warning which will be sent along with their annual income tax declaration draft .Those in question will receive the following warning notice: “In accordance with data available to the tax office, it has come to light that you have taken out a number of adverts announcing property to rent in various media, including the Internet. We remind you that in the case of having earned money through these adverts, this should be included in your annual declaration, as should any other type of income earned through activities that do not correlate with our fiscal information."

At present, this is just a warning, but clearly telling you," that they know what you are up to!"

The authorities cannot be certain the property has been rented or how much has been earned, however, they do have means of finding out ! Information regarding usage from the electricity and water companies will be sought and cross referenced to clearly establish whether the property has been lived or not.

Its not only taxpayers who rent out a second property without declaring the income that are to be targeted, the tax office is also combing other websites and adverts for any other type of business or service providers receiving remuneration but not declaring the earnings.