You can read my previous blog about my ongoing problems with Suma via this link Suma property taxes bring a nasty surpise.
In a previous blog I mentioned how my SUMA bills never seemed to arrive correctly, and that on my Asessor’s advise I have now returned them unpaid for the last 3 years.
Futher to a call from the Director of the SUMA office I had to resort to sending my Asesor to the office in person to resolve the outstanding issues and to find out exactly what the problem was before we could look into putting it right.
Two out of the three yearly SUMA bills (car tax and domestic basura) always seemed to be correct, however, one always seemed to be an extortionate amount for Commercial basura. Although my finca was once registered as a farm, I understood that it had since been registered as a domestic property when I bought the property – when then was I paying an additional 400 Euros or so per year needlessly (on top of the fines and interest accrued for non-payment each time I refused to pay) ?
Friday of this week brought yet another phone call from the Director chasing up the payments again and asking for reasons as to my non-payment and I simply asked him to call my Asesor in person for clarification.
In a Fawlty Towers-esque style, it seems that my Asesor was actually in the SUMA office at this time attempting to sort the problem, but that a supreme lack of communication by all parties meant that nobody understood what was being requested or what action was required by whom.
After much wailing and gnashing of teeth (mainly on my part) I managed to find out that yes, my property HAD been changed on the registry from a farm to a domestic dwelling, but that the SUMA offices had duly changed it back again – without informing either myself or my Asessor !
When asked why, they simply said that this was because my partner had been for a few years registered as being an ‘Autonomo’, or self employed. A such this ‘obviously’ meant that we were running a business from the premises and would therefore be creating a massive amount of basura.
I felt inclined to point out at this stage that my partner WAS (past tense) Autonomo for about 2 years, but no longer. Equally so he did NOT work from home, instead working as a contractor and from their offices in another town. Even if he DID work from home, he worked in the IT industry where absolutely NO basura was produced !
As things stand, my Asessor is trying to obtain some kind of certificate from the Town Hall to that effect, that he can then present to the SUMA offices. Only then will they make the necessary changes to my file and cancel of the ‘debt’ that I have accrued over the last three years.
At the end of May the outstanding SUMA Bills are re-issued along with the fines and penalties added and then posted out. Maybe I am being unfair, but I fully expect to be presented with a hugely compiled SUMA bill and that I will have to keep plugging away to get the situation resolved.