Auser

Hello

I have a Ltd company in the U.K. and I’m thinking on moving to Spain and get a full time job there.

I will still get the occasional job through my U.K. Ltd company though so I could be in a situation where I have 2 jobs at the same time in the 2 countries.

My question is: can I contribute to both pensions in the 2 countries at the same time in this scenario?

Rosemary

Hi and a warm welcome to the Spanish forum on BE. Myself and Fred James are the moderators for the Spanish forums whilst myself and BEVS moderate Europe. Please read the Site Rules Site Rules | British Expatriate Community adhere to them so that the site runs smoothly. Moderators are there to ensure that the rules of BE are maintained. This is so that members gain the information that they are looking for and find their experiences on the forums to be friendly and worthwhile.

Problems and complaints should always be addressed to a moderator who will look into the matter and deal with it efficiently and fairly. Our members who post in the Spain Forums are usually friendly and helpful with a wealth of knowledge about the issues of living in Spain. I hope that you enjoy your time participating in the forums.

Please let me know if you need any further help.

Loafing Along

Yes ,assuming you are talking about contributions to the National Insurance / Social Security in Spain . In fact if you make the right level of contributions in Spain you can reduce your UK contributions to the lowest level (used to be Class 3 ) and still earn your entitlement to the basic UK State pension. In Spain you need a minimum of 15 years contributions to earn 50% of the full pension.
Definitely worth doing.

chopera

You can still contribute to the UK state pension while living in Spain, and contribute to the Spanish state pension at the same time. This would still be the case even if you didn't have any income from the UK. Given you don't really get anything back from the Spanish state pension until you have contributed for 15 years, it might be worth trying to opt out of this if you don't think you'll be in Spain for that long.

Private pension contributions are another matter. You'd need to seek professional advice, but I suspect it's not allowed to contribute to any UK tax wrapper (ISAs, private pensions, etc) while living in Spain, as the Spanish government wouldn't recognise them as tax wrappers and would want to charge tax. In fact you would probably have to freeze them as well.

VFR

While the discussion is on pensions does anyone know if a small Spanish state paid pension can be paid into another country (like the UK state pension can be)
Sure I read sometime back that it could not (?) and had to be paid into a Spanish bank acc.

snikpoh

I don't think it can.

We have a friend who's Spanish husband died a few years back. His pension (all of 7€ per month) MUST be paid into a Spanish account. Unfortunately, the widower is now non-resident and has to pay bank charges which swallow most of this pension!

Fred James

You can count years in a foreign scheme towards the 15 years. A friend worked in Spain for only 3 years and gets a (small) Spanish pension. He has similar pensions from Italy and Switzerland on the same basis.

VFR

Thanks for that & as I thought.
Wonder why not though ?

chopera

I thought this option was available via the EU only, and therefore might not be an option for the op due to Brexit? However Switzerland isn't part of the EU so maybe I have got this wrong?

Fred James

Possibly, but as the arrangement works both ways, it is in everyone's interest to agree a multilateral "status quo" deal. There are many areas where this sort of agreement will be needed - driving licences for example.

Loafing Along

Depending on where you are officially resident at the time of retirement and assuming one qualifies for a state pension it becomes the responsibility of the Social Services in the country of residence to coordinate all pension contributions and organise the payment of the pension. So as a Spanish resident I did mine through the Spanish SS and they pulled together UK and Brazilian contributions all of whom pay separately to a designated account.

Mustard

I'm interested to know if the Spanish SS offered you any options to them collecting your pensions from other countries into a designated account. Do you know if it's possible to have the UK part of your pension paid into a UK account and the Spanish part into a Spanish account?

Also I'm a bit confused how state pensions are taxed ( as a spanish resident ) when you are receiving from more than one country. Any information most appreciated

Loafing Along

Yes I was able to agree with the UK which account I wanted my pension paid into, a telephone call to the UK fixed it without a problem. Also have to do "Proof of Life" separately, one to UK, one for Spain..

State pensions are taxed as normal income in Spain . I think it is only Civil Servants and other government employees who have theirs' taxed in source country and then "discounted" from total income on their Spanish declaration.

Mustard

Thanks for the info.