[Mark Stücklin]

If you spend more than 183 days in Spain the taxman could consider you a fiscal resident in Spain, tax liable for all your worldwide income and obliged to declare the hated modelo 720 worldwide asset declaration if you own assets of more than €50,000 outside of Spain.

However, I’ve just come across a youtube video from a conference in March organised by the firm of lawyers Almansa & Asociados in Alicante, in collaboration with the Alicante Town Hall, directed at the Russian community in the province, and tackling issues like fiscal residency, in which Juan Carlos Poveda, a tax inspector, seems to suggest that if you get a certificate from your country of origin stating you are tax resident there, then you only need to pay tax on your income and property in Spain, and don’t need to declare the 720.

Now tax isn’t my speciality, but surely that would be a good solution for European pensioners who want to spend more than 183 days a year in Spain, but not be burdened with Spanish fiscal residency? Does anyone know, is it easy to get a certificate of fiscal residency from the a country like the UK if you actually live most of the time in Spain?

Some more info (in Spanish) here: http://puentes.ru/es/jornadas-sobre-residencia-y-fiscalidad-del-nacional-ruso-en-espana/

[Mark Stücklin]

Okay, false alarm. Raymundo, one of our legal contributors, had this to say about the Youtube video:

He’s just saying that if someone owns property in Spain (not their main abode) but earns money abroad and actually have their main set of interests abroad on requesting a certificate of fiscal residency at their home country they cannot be regarded by Spain, following jurisprudence in his own words, as being fiscal resident in Spain.

Anyone spending more than 183 days in Spain or else whose main centre of interests (business, wife, kids) is located in Spain will still be regarded as fiscal resident by the AEAT.

Basically he’s just setting the record straight for golden visa hunters who buy property in Spain i.e. Russians. He’s setting the criteria for them not to be regarded by the Tax Office as fiscal residents i.e. request of fiscal resiency in their home country. They would still be subject to non-resident taxation. He’s just reviewing the different types of “permisos de residencia” which I wrote on detail in my article:

Investor Guide to Spain’s Golden Visa Law

It’s not a legal loophole to circumvent fiscal laws

[Author]

Posts