21 - 27 MARCH 2014
legal
by
Suzanne O’Connell Customer Care at Ábaco
23
Tackling Spanish paper work IF YOU are a resident in Spain, how did you approach the paper work? A. No time like the present – I tackled it straight away and got everything done as soon as I could B. Poco a poco – no rush I just took one piece of paper at a time C. What paper work? Presuming you didn’t answer ‘C’ both approaches have advantages and disadvantages. If you answered ‘A’ then you are at risk of a nervous breakdown. There is just too much to do all at once and there is a natural order in which you have to do things. You cannot rush out and obtain your SIP (health card) until you have your padron. You cannot obtain your residencia without an NIE. If you answered ‘B’ you are less likely to collapse from funcionario (Spanish civil servant) fatigue but you are in danger of leaving an important step too late. For example, having a SIP card is vital if you are living in Spain and do not have health insurance here.
Like many aspects of life, finding the middle ground is probably best. As soon as you have made the decision to live in Spain, then you should write down a list of the paper work you need. For example, this might include: NIE (tax recognition number for those with a financial interest in Spain) Residencia (registration of foreigners with the national police) Padron (town hall register of residents) SIP (the health card of the Spanish National Health Service) Spanish driving licence Tackling them in this order is probably not a bad idea. Regions do vary as to whether you need the residencia before the padron or the other way round but take this as the pecking order and you probably won’t go far wrong. Running parallel to this, the majority of residents must complete an annual tax declaration. Making this declaration will help demonstrate that you are a fiscal resident in Spain, a status that can have benefits such as reducing the amount of inheritance tax to pay and preventing the
retention of 3% from the sale price if you sell your home. You don’t have any choice when you make the declaration. The deadline is 30th June each year and applies to the income from the previous year. This means that you should have plenty of time to navigate other paper work before embarking on your resident tax declaration. The other good news is that it is a much easier process than you might think. In most cases only half an hour is needed and the form is completed online. Your fiscal representative will be able to tell you there and then whether there is income tax to pay or not. In some cases there might even be a refund. Whatever your preferred method of becoming ‘official’, the resident tax declaration is not something you should overlook and the process is nearly as easy as ‘abc’.
Ábaco provide fiscal representation to non-resident and resident Spanish property owners. You can contact us for free advice and information by calling our helpline 96 670 3748 or visiting our website www.abacoadvisers.com