Last year my husband and I moved from Spain to Germany. We are renting out of flat in Spain. I have just realized that we need to file the tax return quarterly if we need to pay (although until I have the answers to these questions I?m not sure if we need to or not!).
I have just been looking at the Form 210 on the website of the Agencia Tributaria (https://www2.agenciatributaria.gob.es/es13/h/ie02100b.html?idi=En) and unsurprisingly have some questions.
Any advice is much appreciated!
1) We are married (since 2009) but always (since 2004) submitted separate tax returns in Spain and have not registered ourselves as married with the tax authorities there.
a. As we both jointly own the property we are renting out in Spain can we fill out just one return for the total income? Would we need to prove that we are married or is it just important that we each own 50% of the property?
b. If we can fill out the return jointly, how do we do this? There is only space for the details of one person filling out the self assessment. Do we not need to give the details of both of us?
2) In the section ?Person performing the self assessment? I presume we tick the box ?Taxpayer?
3) In the section ?Accrual? I understand that you tick ?Grouping? if, for example, you are grouping together income from Jan, Feb, and Mar if declaring Q1, or the whole years income if declaring annually. Is this correct?
4) I?m not sure what to put for ?Date of Accrual??
5) I take it that income from rent is ?Income Type? 01. Is this correct?
6) We are renting the flat to a young couple but use an agency to manage it so the income into our bank account comes from the agency. In the action ?Payer? do we put the details of the agency or the tenants?
7) When it comes to the section ?Determination of the taxable base amount? ? 210 R Income:
a. I take it ?Full income? is the total of the rent we received in our bank account in Jan, Feb, & Mar 2013 e.g. 500+500+500=1500. Do we need to provide any documentation to prove this?
b. Are we able to deduct any expenses? As residents we could deduct our mortgage interest, community fee, house insurance, life insurance, rental insurance, IBI tax?..Are any of these deductible as a non-resident? I would have thought that they apply under ?expenses directly linked to income obtained in Spain? but I am not at all sure what part of any Tax law applies to renting out a flat as a non-resident. This makes a big difference between us presenting a profit or a loss!!!!
c. If we can deduct expenses do we need to provide documentation for them? Would the pdf ?recibos? the bank provides be enough?
8) In the section ?Settlement?:
a. I presume no exemptions apply in our circumstances
b. Tax is 24.75% of the taxable base?
c. I am unsure whether any Agreements are applicable in our circumstances?
9) Filing:
a. From what I understand if the result is positive we have to pay and if it?s negative it is zero tax payable?
b. If it is positive is it possible to file through our Spanish bank from abroad i.e. online? Or do we need to take the form into the bank in Spain in person? How do people get around this?
c. Is the deadline of 20 April just for filing or for paying? What happens if you are late?
d. If th e result is negative the deadline is Dec 30th?
10) Documents:
a. Do we need to provide a certificate of residency for tax purposes from Germany?
b. What other documents are necessary?
Finally, my husband received a bonus payment into our Spanish bank account in March related to the work he did in Spain from Jan-Aug last year. Does he also need to fill out a self assessment in Spain for this? Or just declare it on his German return for 2013?
Once again, any advice would be much appreciated. Getting this done would be a weight off our minds. We have no idea if we can claim deductions and therefore not have to pay, or not and have to pay the full 24.75%. This makes a big difference to our finances over a year!!!!
