Hi,

Myself and my girlfriend are looking at moving to Spain this year.  I work as a web developer for a large publisher in London and they have agreed that I can keep my job and work from Spain.  My girlfriend will need to find work in Spain (shes fluent in Spanish and Im learning).  There doesnt seem to be any specific information about how to manage our circumstances in terms of tax payments for me and other contributions.  We are looking at moving to Barcelona.  Is anyone else in the same situation or can anyone offer any advice?

Many thanks,

Jim

Hi Jim,
I knew someone, an American actually, who was working here in Barcelona for about a year for his company in the US. Since he was a journalist/content writer, everything was done online, like web development. No one (as far as governments were concerned) knew about this, nor are they going to care because the laws on this haven’t really been written. Welcome to the new Internet world for working nomads.

In your case your employer will probably pay your taxes in the UK, you’d do well to avoid declaring residency status in Spain (you don’t need to, but do empadronarse at your local council) or you’ll end up confusing everyone involved.

This is all unofficial advice by the way…

Thanks Expatriator, thats very useful advice.  One thing though, by ‘empadronarse yourself’ do you mean getting the N.I.E?

Cheers, Jim

Um, nope. Empadronarse is done at the local council, whereas getting your NIE is done at the police station. Keep reading/searching around our site for lots more details on that stuff!

Thanks for the info.  Will look around the site for more details,

Cheers, Jim

Sounds like I’m in a similar situation, but currently my business is in the UK and I’m in Spain. We moved over because my wife has a job here. Currently we’re still taking the lie of the land before deciding how to move forwards with regard to tax, business development etc. I do have an NIE (you need this to access things like health services here) so I will be paying something in Spain, although technically I’m on unpaid sabbatical while I work out how things need to be set up. Advice-wise I think there is more help from the Spanish side than from the UK. Certainly my UK accountant didn’t know anything about how to set up. A friend pointed me towards PwC who seemed to want to treat it as a major corporation move and charge ?5000 per hour. So if you can contact some law firms in Spain to get more information.

Saul

Check out Strong Abogados in Barcelona who do this kind of thing all the time. Good people (Amerian and Spanish family biz).

Hi,

I too am in a similar position to the above and have e-mailed strong (waiting for a reply)

My situation is similar, but different: I am an airline pilot for a British company and will be moving to Spain at the end of the year, but commuting to work maybe once or twice a month. I doubt that I will total 183 days a year in Spain but I am taking my family with me and will have a house there - and technically no property in UK.

Most of the commuters I know from my company (and there are many!) do not bother to pay income tax in Spain (or UK). Some, such as myself who come under the umbrella of technically resident (because they have their families with them), are riding on a knife edge and others who are single and don’t spend 183 days in Spain are pretty safe (their loophole). I have thought seriously about joining the non-payers and putting the money I would have paid in tax away “just in case” I get the dawn raid but I know how that will end: I will spend it! Income tax in Spain is higher than in the UK but overall the tax burden is less. This is a very complex system and I’m really at a loss of what to do. I flit from deciding to risk the wrath of Hacienda and enduring the inevitable UKIR investigation (which always comes to a frustrating nothing for them, allegedly), and sleeping well at night by paying my dues, but always knowing that 99% of my colleagues in my situation are getting away with not paying a penny to what amounts to thieving political a$$holes.

I was wondering if anyone knows if there are any special rules pertaining to pilots from, say Iberia, taxwise as there are in some other countries such as France.

Sorry for the length of this post,

Many thanks