In a context where the increases in housing prices seem to find no end, partly due to the high taxation to which properties that come onto the market are subject, The Ministry of Finance insists on its intention to harmonize the rates of the Inheritance and Donation Tax, ISD, to “make it impossible for some tax figures to remain in vain and provide greater fiscal co-responsibility to all the autonomous communities.” These are the words of former minister María Jesús Montero, who in recent days has made her successor in office her own.Arcadi España, who has positioned herself in a continuous line with which she was also first vice president of the Government until a few weeks ago.
This position has skyrocketed donations from parents to children in recent years, especially in 2025, due to the fear of fiscal harmonization that would suddenly eliminate bonuses, which reach 99%, and even 100%, in an increasing number of autonomous communities.
According to the latest statistics from the General Council of Notaries, CGN, the number of formalized donations, “whether of liquid money, real estate or other types of assets”, rose last year to 225,317. The figure is almost 13% more than in 2024; 30% more than two years ago and up to 132.8% more than a decade ago, in 2016.
The increases have taken on new momentum in recent years, When the Government began to propose the creation of a new state tax, which would act in a similar way to the tax on multinationals to guarantee a global minimum rate with which they would collect, According to their estimates, around US$587 million additional for the State.
The implementation of this tax could boost “that the autonomous communities begin to remove the bonuses to keep the collection themselves, instead of the Treasury doing it“, Alejandro del Campo, partner of DMS Legal Intelligence, tells Expansión. Which, in turn, has increased “the fear factor” in the taxpayer, who prefers to take advantage of the existing regional bonuses as soon as possible in the event of possible tax harmonization.
The other factor that would explain the increase in donations is, for the tax lawyer, the incentive effect generated by the bonuses implemented in different Ccaa. “When they were not subsidized, loans were often formalized between parents and children, which also involved family help,” although these had to be repaid.
These transfers are once again in the Treasury’s agenda this year, after the 2026 Annual Tax and Customs Control Plan once again includes the reinforcement of the exchange of information with the autonomous communities on “loans between individuals” and collaboration to facilitate “the regularization of undeclared donations.”
Although the CGN data covers donations of real estate, other assets and liquid money indiscriminately, Del Campo points out that “what is being done most are donations of money, since the rest can involve capital gains that increase the tax bill for the donor.”with the exception of some regions, such as the Balearic Islands and Galicia, where “civil law allows donations to be made during the life of the parents who in the deed introduce a succession agreement”, which for tax purposes “is considered inheritance” and allows the bonus of 99% or 100% “eliminating the capital gain for the donor”, explains Alejandro del Campo.
New regional bonuses for donations
Faced with the demands of the central government, several autonomous communities have introduced bonuses on donations from parents to children in recent years. In the case of the Community of Madrid, the tax benefit has been extended even to other immediate family members, such as brothers, uncles or nephews, while other regions have implemented specific measures for the purchase of their first home, in the midst of a price crisis that complicates access, especially among young people.
In this regard, eleven regional tax administrations, with the exception of Cantabria, Castilla, La Mancha, Region of Murcia and La Rioja; and Basque Country and Navarra, which have their own regional regimes – offer these benefits, with different amounts and conditions, according to data from the Spanish Association of Tax Advisors, Aedaf.
In the Balearic Islands, where donations grew the most the previous year at 26.2%, for example, the current reduction amounts to 100% of the amount donated, provided that the home is acquired within six months of the donation; while in Catalonia, where They grew 18.4% last year, reaching 95% if the donee is under 36 years old and earns less than US$42,267 annually.
