I am happy to have found http://www.spainexpat.com. It has offered me and my friends some sound advice and good ideas. I hope someone can help with the following: I have heard, but don’t know where to get solid details,  that it?s possible to work in Spain without holding residency or work permits, and declare in the USA, I guess as an autonomous worker? I appreciate any advice.

Hello,
I wish that I could be responding with some advice, but instead I’m just letting you know that your not the only one in this position. I’m moving to Madrid in late Sept. to teach eng. as a second language however i’m looking for an additional income. If i find anything, i will be certain to post it to you quickly.

Best,
Diego Cerquera
.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

I can only give you the info from when I studied abroad here in the North of Spain. I was able to work at an language academy teaching English without any work visa. I was here on a student visa, but that was for studying abroad purposes only. I was paid in cash once a month (10-12 euros an hour) back in 2003-2004. I don’t know if they are still doing that because I am getting married here and will be working for an academy starting in September under a contract.

I’m no expert, I can only offer my opinion, for whatever it’s worth…

You can find work in Spain with no work visa, yes. However, it is illegal and so you obviously won’t be paying taxes on that in Spain. Nor will you be paying Social Security, so you won’t get any benefits. 

The U.S. wants you to file taxes wherever you are in the world, whether you have official residency abroad or not. They don’t care. They just want your money.

If you earn money from the U.S. and/or anything legal, I would DEFINITELY report that to the U.S. regardless of whether you have already paid taxes on it in another country. The U.S. has tax treaties with some countries, including Spain, to reduce the double tax burden.

Again, I’m no expert, and I don’t want to encourage anything illegal, but…

If your money is coming from illegal, under the table sources in Spain where no one has any official record of you actually working there, why would you report that to the U.S.?

I’m a tax CPA in the US.  The IRS generally wants you to pay tax on worldwide income, regardless of how it is earned.  You may qualify for the foreign earned income exclusion as well. 

Take a look at IRS Pub 54 - http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p54.pdf

Bottom line, if you get paid under the table in the US, you are expected to pay tax on those earnings.  The same holds true while you are out of the US.

Golpe de Estado, you could be a welcome addition to the forum here. 😊

The US expects all of this, but in my experience it’s not so easy for them to enforce it. There are 12 million undocumented people in the US who, I’d imagine, are not paying taxes. I doubt they’ll care about 15,000? from an American working in Spain. Feel free to correct me of course!

Is there not an $85k base amount that you’re allowed to earn overseas before paying taxes back in the US as well?

The Expatriator - 07 August 2007 03:38 AM

Golpe de Estado, you could be a welcome addition to the forum here. 😊

The US expects all of this, but in my experience it’s not so easy for them to enforce it. There are 12 million undocumented people in the US who, I’d imagine, are not paying taxes. I doubt they’ll care about 15,000? from an American working in Spain. Feel free to correct me of course!

Is there not an $85k base amount that you’re allowed to earn overseas before paying taxes back in the US as well?

They certainly care, but I would agree this in not low hanging fruit from an IRS enforcement standpoint.  But just like somebody here in the US making an incorrect statement like: I get paid in cash for my service so my income in tax free, the same hold true for expats - US tax is due on your worldwide income. 

In 2006 the foreign earned income exclusion was $82,400 (for those who qualify) - see page 12 of the IRS Pub 54 (link in the earlier post) .  Look forward to helping out where I can.

Is this thread dead?
I’m searching around to find advice for my case and haven’t found it yet, so administrators, forgive me if I am reposting a question covered elsewhere.

Case 1)
A US citizen moves to Spain on a tourist visa and lives here illegally while telecommuting for a job in the US.
Obviously, US taxes must be paid, but what about Spanish taxes. If you are a non-resident, and for all intents and purposes, do not appear on any Spanish paperwork—no nie, no social security card—are you liable for Spanish taxes? and if so, how do you register to pay them in such a case.

Case 2)
A US citizen in the same boat as above, but earning euros in Spain under the table. Paid in cash by Spaniards with no papertrail. I understand the law says that you must pay taxes on all worldwide earned income in the US, BUT if there is no proof at all of earning money here, how do you go about paying US taxes. And what about Spanish taxes?

Thanks for any help and I hope the answers will be helpful to others. I am new to this board and LOVE IT so far. I’ve been here awhile and will gladly start contributing to some of the forums.

saludos,
madcll

I too am very curious about case #1. I work in the internet industry and have many clients asking if I can still work for them while I’m in Europe. I thought I may be able to start a business in the US and have the checks go directly there, forgoing any European taxes.

Would this work?

I actually found the answer further down:

http://www.spainexpat.com/spain/forum/viewthread/3925/

It’s just not worth doing all that work to get taxed both ways, so I’m just taking it easy.

If you live in Spain but earn money in the U.S. and pay taxes there you would be living illegally in Spain once your 90 day tourist visa is up. 

If you would like to live legally in Spain while being paid in the US and paying taxes to the US and you don’t need to access social services and programs in Spain such as health care, retirement plans etc., than you should look into getting a Non Lucrative Visa.  To qualify for this you need to be able to prove that you have enough funds to support yourself (in other words, you have to prove that you are going to live here and contribute money to the economy without taking any from the social safety net).  I am not sure whether this would actually work for you, but it would be worth looking into.