Purchase of a property from an SL / through a corporate vehicle

I am considering the purchase of a Spanish property which is presently owned by a Spanish SL.

Assuming the SL to be a single purpose vehicle with no economic activites other than the ownership of the property, I am unclear whether I avoid Spanish transfer taxes if I simply take a transfer of the shares. A 1% cost instead of 8% on a property transfer has been mentioned by the selling agent.

If I were to incorporate a Delaware corporation as the acquirer of the shares, which then held the property as my moninee, I understand that I would not have to pay the 3% tax normally applicable for 'offshore' owned properties as, for some unexplained reason, Spain has decided not to apply that tax to Delaware companies and (I saw somewhere) stated last year that this would not be changing. Can anyone confirm ?

Leaving aside the cost of mainaining the corporate entities and the need to make returns etc. are there any disadvantages to using this route ?

Hi

I would be very carefulll with oversee companies as a vehicle. If you set that up to avoid capital gain taxes you could get in some serious trouble. In fact, I did read recently on a blog that a laywer got send to jail for that.

Regards

Wolfgang Brand