garythec

Hi All

Can anyone offer advice please,

When we move across to Spain it may be necessary for myself to still work in the UK for part of every month. We are to become permanent residents of Spain with the family not returning to UK whilst I envisage myself having to work in UK for about 12 months.

Any ideas where I can look for the tax implications or other advice/ experiences are appreciated.

Thanks Gary..

jdr

The best people to ask are the Inland Revenue, they are usually very helpful and dont bite

garythec

Hi jdr

Thanks for the reply, I have a meeting in two weeks time with the Inland Revenue.

I was wondering if any members are in similar situations and could give advice on the subject.

This would possibly ensure I ask all the right questions when I meet up with the revenue.

Many Thanks..

Gary..

coralsoft

Hi Gary,
When we first moved over, I was spending most of my time in the UK, then increased the amount of time I was in Spain, though still working for the UK client.

I obtained my Spanish residency soon after moving here (within a year, soon after my family had arranged theirs). However, I stayed in the UK tax system longer than that and longer than my wife, who was not in full-time employment with anyone.

The basic idea, after talking to our Spanish accountant and the IR about NI and tax, was that I could easily do 2 years in Spain (with UK visits) as a 'secondment' from my UK company and stay in the UK system, but that it would be better to 'go Spanish' after that. Our Spanish adviser said to make the most of the UK system while we could . So after a couple of years, we set up a Spanish company along with social security and taxes and switched into the Spanish system a couple of years ago and notified the UK authorities that I was no longer UK tax resident, I believe.

The issues you need to cover in the meeting are things like:
How much time you will be spending in the UK/Spain, ie how the tax residency rules will apply.
When you will be cutting down your time in the UK in relation to the tax years of both countries.
Whether you can notify permanent non-residence at some point and have that apply to tax residency, rather than wait for a full tax year of non-residence to pass (I think you can).
Where you will be doing any work and for whom (UK or Spanish organisation or both).
Who will be your employer (Spanish or UK entity) or self-employed (be aware that social security for self-employed (autonomo) in Spain can be quite high, even if there's no income).
What NI you will be paying in the UK and if you will want to continue contributions after leaving the UK or switch to making Spanish social security contributions.
If you are not empoyed by an external organisation, but are charging clients, you might want to ask about VAT (it's not charged between entities in different EU countries), since the IR and HMCE have been merged.

Perhaps some more specifics about your circumstances if it's not straight employment, might help us give advice.

Oh, yes: I have a friend here who has been working in Madrid, employed on a UK contract for at least 4 years, so that seems to be possible.