In Araba, Bizkaia, Gipuzkoa and Navarra the judgment of the Supreme Court of Justice on Tuesday will be affected, although the effect will be more limited compared to the rest of Spain. To begin with, the citizens of Álava, Bizkaia and Gipuzkoa do not pay the Tax on Documented Legal Acts (AJD) if the purchased is their usual home.

It is therefore the citizens of the Basque Autonomous Community who buy second homes who have to assume the mortgage tax. The tax to be paid to the buyer in this case would be 0.5% of the signed loan.

In the case of Navarra there is no exception such as the CAV and in mortgages for the purchase of habitual housing the tax is 0.5%. However, in the case of Official Housing this tax does not apply.

Banking wins, citizenship loses

Despite the impact it will have on Hego Euskal Herria, the ruling of the Supreme Court has raised a great scandal in the Spanish State. The judges have made a 180-degree turn with respect to the judgment of 18 October, in a period of three weeks: The president of the Third Chamber of the Supreme Court, Luis Díez-Picazo, initially announced that banks would pay the mortgage tax but that the next day they would review the judgment.

The new judgment comes after a long debate between the judges: Of the 28 judges, 15 were in favour of the indictment, while 13 were opposed. The decision, which was in principle to be 31 judges, has not been taken for a number of reasons, including three.

Spanish consumer associations have stressed that banks have won and citizens have lost, respectively. They have also stressed that the independence of the judiciary has been called into question by the scandal they are developing.

The verdict has also served to give importance to the situation of the political parties in the Basque Country. We may have called for a "civic mobilization" before the Supreme Court this Saturday in protest at the measure, which it considers "insufficient".