Hi all,

I am about to quit my job here in Madrid a return to the US.  I will have been working in Spain for almost 3 yrs.  Does any know if there is any way to claim back any of the taxes I have paid into the system (i.e. retirement, unemployement, etc…) when I leave?  Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Can’t say I know but I do want to say Boiler Up! and that I’m a recent Purdue grad about to move to Madrid in September.

boilermaker7 - 24 May 2010 04:19 PM

Hi all,

I am about to quit my job here in Madrid a return to the US.  I will have been working in Spain for almost 3 yrs.  Does any know if there is any way to claim back any of the taxes I have paid into the system (i.e. retirement, unemployement, etc…) when I leave?  Any help would be greatly appreciated!

I haven’t heard of being able to recover any social security contributions - I am guessing they will be lost forever.  If you have been paying income tax from your monthly salary this year, you would probably get a tax rebate if you did a tax return next year because of the personal allowances you have.  You would have to keep a bank account open to receive the money into.

I was waiting for someone legal to comment as I was unsure but I doubted very much if social security payments would be refunded as I don’t think that is ever the case. Still nothing wrong with optimism!

Forgive me if I am missing something but why would social security payments be refunded, or regarded as ‘lost forever’?  They paid for the local services you used whilst you were working here (health, schools, roads, ok yeah the endless troupe of civil servants warming desks for 2 hrs a day, but the point applies!). Theyre not lost theyre spent!

Tax retentions should be recoverable though I’d have thought,

BDP x