Spain Forum

Taxed income as local

2012-01-03T12:43:51+01:00

Hello all,
New to the forum so apologies if this was covered a million times (did try to search, but didn´t find exactly what I needed)

Anyway, here goes:
I have been on ex-pat assignment with my US company in Madrid for the last year and a half. My assignment is coming to an end and was told I could take a “leave of absence” from my US contract and stay here for a couple of more years under a local contract.
They would make me an offer on a local contract, paid from Spain (vs current situation where I still get my salary in USD in the US)

As such, would I be subject to Spain tax rates, or can I claim this 24% non-resident tax for a few years, as some seem to have commented on? Seems like the local tax rate that I would fall under is over twice that of the flat rate, so clearly that would make a big impact on my decision to stay or not.

Other factors that may or may not make a difference:
- I am a dual citizen (US/UK) so would assume I´d stay here under UK passport
- Married with 2 kids (under the age of 3)

Would appreciate any insight

thanks in advance

El Paro and English Taxes

2011-09-26T12:22:39+01:00

Hello all

I have been living in Barcelona for a year and working for nearly six months, full time with SS contributions etc. My job is not very secure (it is a huge multi-national company and i think there will be redundancies soon). I am not sure how El Paro works. As I am nearly at six months I believe i have some entitlement, also is it possible to transfer taxes/national insurance contributions from the UK to spain as before I moved to Barca I was in full time employement for many years. I have been searching the internet but I am not having much luck.

Thanks for any help !

Maritime tax law’s.

2012-01-27T15:17:42+01:00

Hi,

I’m looking for some specific answers in regard to the above title.
My family are looking to move out to Spain this year, My wife and children will be living in Spain on a permanent basis but I will be working in the maritime industry for a company based in Dubai so non of my earnings will come from Spanish employment. I will be out of the country for over six months per year.
I wondered if anybody has any personnel experience with this type of work and tax system or put me in touch with the appropriate tax adviser who’s specialize in the maritime tax laws.

many thanks.

Personal Income Tax Hikes

2012-01-09T19:37:14+01:00

I´ve been seeing a bit of riff raffs about the new personal income tax changes (for residents), where pretty much every income bracket will be hit with a tax hike this year. Does anyone know exactly what the hikes are, and when Rajoy intends to get my money? :(

The news I´ve been seeing are a bit confusing on this topic…

Cheers!!

ATM Problems

2012-01-10T10:46:19+01:00

Hi,
This is my first post on this site, unfortunately it is not a happy story.
In September 2010 I was in Matalascanas on a golf holiday and used a Cajasol ATM which I had used many times before.
The result was a cancelled transaction note and no cash came out, thinking it was a card problem I tried another card with the same result. On checking my Bank online I found the cash had been debited, I challenged this with both banks an the money was returned to my account with the proviso that if it was found that I had been issued the cash it would be taken form my account after 45 Days. One bank took the money after a month and I had to go via the Ombudsman to get it back 15 months later.
We now spend the winter here in Spain. This year I tried to withdraw cash from another Cajasol ATM close to us having seen other people use it , the first few times I used it without problem but on the 6th Jan 2012 I had another transaction cancelled note and no cash, but once again the money left my account.
This seems to me to be too much of a coincidence, as an ex system programmer I began to think there must be a system fault or I have been the subject of an internal fraud in one of the players in the chain of the transaction.
If anyone has had a similar experience with this bank or any other bank using Euro6000 ATM’s could you post here or leave a private message for me.
Thank you

Gibraltar Euro Account?

2012-01-11T14:40:35+01:00

Hi, I am officially self-employed/resident of UK and have UK bank account, pay taxes in UK etc…
Recently I have started to gain clients in Spain and they want to pay me in Euros (in Spain), but unless I open a Spanish bank account (which I hear is looked at like a hawk by the Spanish Tax man - and I don’t want any excess form filling etc as I do pay my taxes!)... does any one have an account in Gibraltar whereby they can offer this as an alternative to paying any SWIFT type fees ontop of any payments they want to make to me?

(My UK bank First Direct will offer me a ‘holding account’ which is in Euros, but I think I then have to pay the SWIFT fee of 9BGP if I want to take any of the money out/transfer to my Stirling account.)

Any tips welcome!

(I guess I could open a Spanish non-resident account, but again want as little hassle as possible as I know I will have to go and get some kind of certificate from the Police regarding non-resident status as they have all been tightening belts on bank accounts/matters fiscal big time!)

PS - I may want to make some payments for purchases in Spain (materials mainly) from time to time, but I really don’t want to go down that route if it is going to cause me extra paperwork when it comes to tax return time

Has anybody had problems with letting agents?

2011-12-28T19:04:43+01:00

I had been using a lady who trades as Place In Spain in Sabinillas on Calle Marques de Larios.
I forwarded her some money, but she has not as yet, despite legal letters, returned it.
Has anyone else had similar problems?

working in Gibraltar but living in Spain

2011-11-02T15:02:39+01:00

As a family of 4 (kids age 4 and 7) and with partner planning on working in gibraltar but us living in southern spain, i have the task of trying to put together a budget as i normally do our “books” - so many things i dont know but wondered if anyone can confirm any information for us please??

i have looked at the tax pages and from what i can tell you get a basic tax free allowance of 5151 Euros then do you add on BOTH the 1st child and 2nd child tax allowances of 1836 and 2040 Euros giving a total tax free allowance of 9027 Euros? and then tax the remainder of your wages as per the table.

Also i understand there is no council tax or equivilent if renting in Spain? Any other help on Utilities charges would be greatly appreciated too as i dont know whether they are the same as the UK or more or less still.

Thanks to anyone who can help in any way!!

Sarah

Spanish Finance News by Jurdy

2008-09-18T01:05:43+01:00

Grupo Prisa has said that it has received five offers for its Digital Plus(known as Canal+) pay satellite service. The bids have come in from Telefónica, Vivendi, Telecinco, Ono and BSkyB.

Canal+ is a Spanish pay television channel, launched in September 1990 on terrestrial television frequencies. The channel is operated by Sogecable. The main staples of Canal+ are Spanish football, bullfighting and recent movies.

In 1997 new channels using the Canal+ brand were launched in Spain. Just as on the other markets were Canal+ was present, the channels were named after colours: Canal+ Rojo (Canal+ Red) and Canal+ Azul (Canal+ Blue). A special channel broadcasting content in 16:9 aspect ratio was launched later on, but it was replaced by a time-shift channel in 2001. In 2003, the colour branding was abandoned and several movie and sports channels were launched.

In 2005, the Spanish government agreed on a change in the license terms for the channel. The permission to change the channel from a mostly encrypted channel into a 24 hour free-to-air channel was officially given by the council of ministers on July 29, 2005. From November 2005, its analogue terrestrial frequencies were given to Sogecable’s new channel named Cuatro (“Four”). Canal+ is available on the digital satellite television platform Digital+.

Grupo Ferrovial, S.A. (English: Ferrovial Group)is to sale Gatwick airport in London 2.5 billion €.

Spanish services and construction giant, owner of BAA has put Gatwick airport in London up for sale, obliged to do so by the British competition agency. The airport is valued at some 2 billion pounds, 2.5 billion €. It has a single runway, but despite that is handling 35 million passengers a year – last year’s number.
In June 2006, a Ferrovial-led consortium purchased the British company BAA Limited, for £10 billion.[5] BAA owns and operates seven British airports, including London Heathrow Airport, and operates or carries out retail management in several others.

New Mayor of Alicante

Sonia Castedo takes up her position as the first Lady Mayor of Alicante today with the idea of forming a cross-party pact with the administrations in an attempt to move large projects in the city forward.

The 37 year old Partido Popular mayor said yesterday that she would be keeping the team of councillors which had been chosen by her predecessor, Luis Díaz Alperi . he was mayor sine mid 90 with 13 years under his belt

more at jurdy @ fmplus dot es

SPANISH WILL - UK Debts

2011-11-24T07:12:18+01:00

Are there any lawyer type members out there who might know about this?

Situation -
Friend has UK debts (more than 7yrs old, hasn’t paid since they left UK. Or informed creditors of new address here.
Things have got a bit better for them (a little! Not a lot!)...
They are hoping to become a home owner here…. And will write a Spanish will, but under UK laws, stating which
family member they wish to leave the property to when they die. (Unlike Spanish law where all the immediate family
are automatically entitled to an equal share).

They are worried that if a Spanish will is read (that has the UK bit in), that the ‘authorities’ in the UK will be alerted to the
fact that they have assets now, and that this will be taken to clear the debts.

———-
IMO - Unless the debit agencies/creditors are so keen to get the amount they owe, and have kept the debt case active all this time, plus they somehow have to find out about the Spanish Will/Property, then they should be OK?

Any views/actual information on this?

Thanks.

PS This person is only just about to become resident here officially. (Before now has been back and forth.) Also, they are about to get a fixed part time job here, so will be visible as paying tax and social secutiry here.)