Re: Re: Taxes in Spain for non-residents

#115764
GarySFBCN
Participant

@mark wrote:

@GarySFBCN wrote:

As I am married to a Spaniard, I am automatically considered a fiscal resident.

I don’t know if that is right, but obviously you had better check with a tax lawyer.
I hear that these days there are lots of Spanish bankers (think Santander) who work in London Monday – Friday, then go home to the family in Madrid for the weekend, yet pay non-dom UK taxes on income. Very sweet deal. They are all Spanish, married to Spaniards, with family home in Spain.

@Ardun wrote:

GarySFBCN I guess it comes down to that you have to prove where you spend 183 of your days living/working. The burden of proof resides on you when you are deemed to have some sort of connection to the country… married, children etc. That’s how it is in most of the world but you will have to look at the tax treaty between the US and Spain. The rule about 183 is mostly a guideline. The thing about the banksters paying no tax in England seems weird and sounds more like tax evasion than anything else.

OK, we met with the lawyer this afternoon. Good news/bad news.

Good news: As Ardun guessed, because I am married to a Spaniard, I have to prove that I am not a fiscal resident and the lawyer says that it’s easy to do because I have not been in Spain for more than 180 days in any year.

More good news: Because I am not a fiscal resident, I do not have to declare any foreign accounts at all.

Somewhat good news: I do have to pay some local tax on my half of the vivenda we bought, based upon the cadastral value, which is pretty low. My share of the tax, which is due at the end of this calendar year is about 66€, and I will have to pay it each year.

Neutral news: My husband will have to declare 50% of the sum of all banks accounts in the US that list him on the title and that have a total value of greater than €50,000. This is ‘registered’ and not taxed, but will be subject to the ‘wealth tax’ (or whatever it is called) if we reach a certain level of wealth, which is €500,000 each in Catalunya as of today.

Bad news: There is a change in policy with the US: For fiscal residents of Spain who are citizens of the US, it used to be that if they paid taxes in the US, they would not have to pay taxes in Spain. The new policy is that they (I) will be responsible for paying taxes in Spain as stated by others here: My taxes will be calculated in Spain and they will deduct the amount I pay in the US and I will have to pay the rest here in Spain. Not the end of the world, but it will have me scrambling to figure out if I can really afford to retire this year as planned.

Other news: They kept talking about certificates of taxes paid that I can obtain from the government. I think that is how it works in Europe, but in the US, I don’t believe there is any such thing. I’ll work on that one, assuming I survive the reforma.