[Anonymous]

Hi,
I’m new to this forum so your help would be appreciated.
I’ve been pfaffing about on this for a while and would like some advice.
We spend most of our time in Spain but have no income generated here.
I have a police pension taxed in the UK and my wife has her State pension only, again taxed in UK.
We have a house in the UK and the income from this is also taxed in the UK.
We are content to stay under the UK tax system. Medical would not be a problem as my wife is over pensionable age and I can obtain treatment on her ticket here, so to speak.
Can we remain resident in the UK even though we spend little time there citing our house, income,car, children are all there. If so,what would we have to do to be legal here in Spain?
.

[Anonymous]

As the law stands, if you spend more than 182 days per year in any one country, you should be registered as living in that country.

The question is, given your income sources, would the authorities in Spain cotton on to the fact that you are actually living there? In my experience they would but it would probably be later. It could in fact be many, many years.

First you have to decide which course of action you want to take.

[Anonymous]

i am working for a lady at the moment who’s father lived in spain for 20years and when he came to leave to go back home to end his life in the uk found out he didn’t have residencia as he had not been fileing a tax return,so if you have income from england as he did (pension ) and you want residencia you still need to file a tax return in spain of zero

[adiep]

Brian, how would the Spanish authorities get to the point where they could determine the OP was full time resident in Spain?

The only way I can think of, is if he owns a Spanish property and they decide they want to chase some tax. As weve seen with others, its possible they will come after foreigners for tax on any undeclared rental income. Of course, at that point you would have to admit you were full time resident to avoid that tax, but then cop for income tax…

EDIT: Excuse the “cop” pun, didnt realise till after 🙂

[Anonymous]

That indeed Adie is the million euro question.

I’ve actually lived in NL now for eleven years without being ‘properly’ registered. To put things in context, whilst I have retained my Irish citizenship, I am registered with the tax authorities, both local and national, here. I own property, have medical care, etc. I have even on one occasion claimed unemployment benefit without any problem. I am however supposed to go to the police station with some documents and get a stamp in my passport.

When I arrived to work here most of my ex-pat colleagues told me they hadn’t bothered so I didn’t. The only time it was ever an issue for me was some five years ago. On one of my many, many trips through Schiphol a jobsworth immigration officer gave me a lecture saying that I should be registered because ‘I can’t tell that you live here by looking at your passport’. As a consequence of this I contacted the foreign ministry and they sent me a little booklet in English explaining why I must apply (Its the law) and how to go about doing it.

Right at the end of this booklet was a Q&A in quite small print. One of the questions was: “What happens if I do not register?” to which the answer was “In practice, nothing. Under EU treaty you have free right to travel, residence and employment in any member state. You may not be eligible for some government grants.” Once I read that I decided again not to bother registering. The next jobsworth immigration officer that tries to tell me off will be told the advice that his own foreign office is giving.

Having said that I do know of some people who have felt it better to register. This has come as a consequence of things such as opening a bank account. My bank didn’t require it, some others do. Registering kids at a school. Getting arrested, etc, etc. It is one of those things that pops up from time to time. Under the Duch system there are no consequences if you don’t register. My understanding from this is that under EU treaty this should also apply in all other EU states. I very much doubt that it does, particularly in Spain. 😆

[Anonymous]

Thank you for your replies. I read the other day that the authorities now have access to the Electricity companies’ records so can establish by usage that either your property is rented out or you must be resident.
I think I will register and submit the nil tax return, probably safer.
There is a box on the form that aske how long you want Residencia for so I will start off with 5 years and reassess then.

[Author]

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