Cricketman just out of interest do you work in Spain and pay Income tax in Spain?

Yes, it's efficient, but like many things German, can be extremely obtuse, blunt, and unfair, and certainly facilitates all kinds of questionable cash collections which are arguably at the whims of some high paid beamter, not in the spirit of fairness or legality. It was the finanzamt who conducted the illegal bank raids in Liechtenstein and Switzerland, which illustrates just what level of power they believe they have.

By the way, Germans are definitely renters. It's a renting society.


Reflecting on the history of similar initiatives in Spain, I'd be more inclined to believe that considering the 10's of millions of potential "tax evaders" that would need to be researched, the small agency they employ to research them will likely enjoy big salaries, 30-hour work weeks, 8 weeks of holiday, guaranteed employment for life, will more likely spend the bulk of their work days surfing facebook than tracking down tax cheats, and could give a flying fark about successfully exposing even a fraction of a percent of them.

Yes, and yes

Then I'm sorry but you are in a totally different situation to the likes of myself and many others on this forum so we will of course have a very different point of view, which of course we are all entitled to.

We're all entitled to our point of views

But please realise that I have not said that the law is just, fair or sensible, only that if you do not abide by it then you are running the risk of very large fines and having your assets siezed

Lots on here have said that there is nothing to worry about because the system is inefficient. That is a dangerous, naive and ignorant point of view to have

Lots on here have said that there is nothing to worry about because the system is inefficient. That is a dangerous, naive and ignorant point of view to have

Yes I agree with that hence my choice and advice to other non resident home owners is to stay that way until the dust settles and we can see the wood from the tree's. It doesn't stop me enjoying my property and Spain for 183 days per year.

I agree Lynn, and the agreement, detail and dates that I was referring to was the draft FATCA agreement that was published on th UK government website, which they said they had been developing with Spain Germny, France and the US, not the press release that JennieJ is referring to.

Just bringing an end to "al portador" cheques will bring in 10X the amount produced by the 720 fiasco. In fact in terms of GDP I suspect the 720 will be negative. There is no way the disparate bits of information on this form/webpage will fit into some Europe wide tax big brother system. Just look at page 2 there is a box for a total of wealth in the declaration. No allowance is made for the "participation" in the investment. Garbage in Garbage out.

So simple some solutions such as brining in an end to "al portador'" cheques as you say. Instead they come up with this kind of unworkable and potentially unfair nonsense. But why try and sort out your own people who don't pay income tax when you have soft targets like expats running to them with information on accounts that have already had tax paid on them at least once by people who like to do their bit to contribute (yes, yes I know it doesn't only apply to Brits, Germans etc)

The modelo 720 information is used in correlation to what you put on your Spanish income tax forms - and also in conunction with all the automatic information that is sent to hacienda with your NIE/tax/passport number on

On their own of course the modelo 720 forms mean nothing

You've got this completely wrong

The modelo 720 forms were bought in to catch those who were hiding assets outside Spain. They were designed for Spaniards, not British immigrants

However, if you reside in Spain, you must follow Spanish law

There is nothing unworkable or unfair about it. They will only take some of your assets off you if they find out that you were hiding them!

I haven't got it completely wrong and I know full well what they are saying the 720 is designed for, only time will tell what it is a actually used for. Can you give assurances that it will never be used to tax overseas capital.

Noone can forsee the future. But, they would have to give forewarning before introducing a new tax on overseas capital

So simply you could become tax resident elsewhere if you dont like it - or you could transfer your assets to Spain

There are always legal options. You may not like them, but there are indeed options!

I find it curious that throughout this entire crisis...

... the emphasis has been on increasing an already high tax burden, by all standards, the exact reverse of what would be considered responsible and effective economic policy in a time of crisis...

...and at the moment the "fashionable" tactic seems to be to implement draconian enforcement and collection of it... despite having much bigger things to worry about...

... and yet so many still dismiss the consequences of high taxation in favour of more enforcement and collection of more tax, despite already being amongst the highest tax jurisdictions in the world...

... whilst precious few of the population (or our dear leadership) seem to consider that greater tax revenue is historically generated during periods of lower taxation, and don't consider that maybe taxes are just too high in the first place, and perhaps we should be easing that burden, rather than increasing it, which could only result in positive impact on economic growth & employment, increase optimism and trust amongst the population, but perhaps more importantly, serve to minimise the motivation to evade taxes in the first place.

Seems to me that we should be thinking out of the box, not doing more of the same and expecting a different result.

My my, you were quick off the mark paying your Captial gains tax to Hacienda.

It was only the other day (30th April to be exact) that you were debating wether to buy a place in Spain within 4 years so as not to pay capital gains tax, or just pay the 27% tax on the profit.

Around 30k if I am not mistaken

See your post below

I thought that you would have waited a bit longer after all hardly a year has passed from the time you sold up.

Even if you never intended to buy in Spain wouldn´t the money have been better in you possession than Hacienda´s.

A lot can happen in 3 years.