As most of us this morning are looking out of the window onto a cold, wet and windy day - how about chipping in with a comment on this for something to do -

I must say the headline gave me an expectation of something major (like getting a chip on the TIE to obviate the need for a digital certificate), but still
We do have some good options now, including fantastic internet connections via fibre optic and very low prices (better than UK?)

https://spanishnewstoday.com/digital...0263398-a.html

What else would you like to see become available?

I'm late replying because we've been out, taking advantage of the only nice day we're forecast to get this week and into the next, before the rain returns!

It's unbelievable how much improvement there has been in digital services in the 20 years we've lived here. When we first arrived there was no home broadband available at all in the barrio we lived in, apart from wimax which we couldn't get as we didn't have line of sight to a mast, and was very slow and often unreliable anyway. We used to go to the local library to use their computers, or a locutorio. Then a local cable TV company branched out into providing broadband, we signed up for 30mbps at €18.90 per month. Bringing it to us involved them running new cable for over 100m which didn't cost us a penny over and above the monthly charge. We stayed with the same supplier after we moved house in 2017 and they subsequently upgraded the service to fftp (300mbps) for €19.90 per month, which stayed the same until this year when there was a modest increase of less than €1 per month. I can't believe it when I see companies in the UK increasing their prices every year by CPI plus 3%.

The ability to make our medical appointments online (and since we got digital certificates, be able to see test results and hospital consultation reports online) and having prescriptions on our medical cards is something we've always valued highly and light years ahead of the UK where they are only now getting rid of the scramble to get through to the doctor's surgery at 8.00am to try to get an appointment, in many areas.

We use banking apps but still like to have our accounts with a bank which has physical branches, we rarely have to go into the branch now but it is useful for the occasional problem such as when something goes wrong. In the old days having to go into the branch was pure torture with long queues, and I can never understand why some people refuse to pay their bills by direct debit because they fear "the Spanish authorities taking money from their accounts without permission", when it's so much easier. In 20 years, only once have I had a problem which involved an insurance company taking a renewal premium from my account when I'd given notice that I was cancelling the policy, and I just notified the bank that it was not authorised and they credited the money back to my account within a few days.

Doing our tax returns online is a doddle, we do have digital certificates but it's possible for people to do them without a digital certificate by following the process to get a numero de referencia. I do like the way the Spanish introduce new ways of doing things but still seem able to keep the old way going so that those who either don't have access to the technology or aren't confident using it are not left behind. The facility for people to make an appointment at their local Hacienda office to have them complete their annual tax return free of charge still exists, and they also introduced a service whereby an appointment can be made for a member of Hacienda staff to phone them and provide them with the details so they can complete the return. That goes for medical appointments as well where people can still either ring up and get an appointment, or just walk into their centro de salud and ask for one.

Dealing with the Ayuntamiento is also far easier than it used to be as many things can now be done online, and for things that can't they have a very modern "one stop shop" office where you can either make an appointment in advance or just walk in and wait. In the old days you had to navigate a warren of individual offices in the Town Hall.

It's hard to think of areas where more digitalisation might perhaps be useful - maybe making it possible for things like TIEs to be renewed online, after the initial visit to the Extranjeria or Comisaria de Policia Nacional in person to submit the first application. I think it's preferable for people to have to present themselves in person in the first instance, for security reasons.

I totally agree with you, Lynn. It's miles ahead of the UK. To be fair, all the Spanish systems are new, without the problem of upgrading old, badly written systems, which is why the UK systems are so poor - think Post Office Horizon scandal!. The one area that really needs to be sorted is the "Cita Previa" system for appointments with police, etc. The current system is being seriously blocked by computer "Bots", grabbing all the available appointments and then selling them for €100+. The system was implemented during COVID and has not been changed. There are plans to change that, but no sign yet of that happening!

Like you, I think the AEAT systems are so good. It takes me about 10 minutes to do two tax returns. Two years ago, I claimed the cost of installing solar panels. The deductions are spread over 2 or 3 years, so I was worried about how I would enter the second year figures for the remaining amounts. When I got to that section of the declaration, all the figures were already filled in!

As for the Internet, like you, we started with a dial-up system and eventually ended up with a 1Gb/s fibre connection - and we are out of town in the Campo! The mobile data connections are amazing. I was in the underground car park in Mercadonna in Nerja getting 800mb/s download speed. My daughter in Woking, Surrey in the UK gets a Sky Internet connection of 30mb/s and that's the best available.

Quite agree about the Cita Previa appointments for TIEs, etc - the fact that people can make money from grabbing appointments which are supposed to be available to the general public and it seems to be tolerated by the authorities is unacceptable.

It seems to me that many people look at a Spanish tax return that has been completed for them by a gestor or accountant and think it looks far too complicated for them to attempt to complete themselves, because they think information has to be inputted manually in all those boxes whereas, of course, the vast majority of them are autofilled by the computer programme. Our tax affairs aren't complicated, and once we had inputted our personal details on the first page, we only have to enter 3 figures - one for our pension income which is taxable in Spain (in the case of more than one pension, no need to show each one separately as they're all added together, with no information requested as to the provider; one for interest on savings; and one for pension income taxable only in the UK (renta exenta). Then all that remains to be completed is our bank account details for the direct debit payment, and confirm that we want to submit the return and auto-sign it. Absolutely everything else is autofilled. It was by using the free Hacienda service to have our first couple of returns done for us and watching them only have to enter such a minimal amount of information that we realised how simple it really was. I've done two Modelo 720 returns as well and there's no great mystique to them either, unless you have lots of individual stocks and shares.

As you say, most people do their first return with some professional help. usually a gestor or financial "advisor" and pay a not insignificant sum to do so. The professional asks for loads of paperwork, "evidence", and finally submits your return. Easy money if you can get it. Make it as complicated and paperwork-heavy as you can to justify the fee! In reality, no backup paperwork is required. P60's are irrelevant as the UK and Spanish tax years do not coincide. Yes, the forms are in Spanish, but Google translates most of them for you.

They forecast rain today, but woke up to sun, so before I go out and enjoy a stroll...

Yes, I remember my early days in Spain (2000s....) dialling up AOL (!!) to get online thats if you could get a telephone line - I lived on a new 'urb' and lines were not easily available. I now have fibre optic, which O2 say is 1GB - but their router (and my hardware) will not work at that speed. But the connection is still fantastic - funny how UK adverts for internet never mention an actual speed!

I also remember writing a sterling cheque (!!) to myself, paying it into my Spanish bank, and weeks later, pesetas were credited to my account. Now, of course using Wise I am exchanging and moving money between countries in seconds. I seldom go onto my branch these days as virtually everything can be done online.

With my digital certificate, I can access all sorts of Spanish government services, including AEAT, local taxes (SUMA in Alicante), etc. And yes, accessing the health system via our Valencia app is fantastic to make appointments and the paperless prescriptions - all excellent.

Fred makes a good point the UK is starting from having to upgrade very old and poorly implemented systems, so we are lucky to have Spain's in the main excellent IT systems.

Buying online (ok not unique to Spain) is also something I do a lot as I live in a small village so this is useful for me and Amazon's service I find is excellent.

This popped up in my newsfeed this morning - thought it was an interesting example of how Hacienda is using AI and algorithms to monitor and identify suspicious transactions. Moving with the times!

Un extrabajador de Hacienda avisa a España: "Ya no te revisa un inspector, te vigila un algoritmo 24 horas que decide tu riesgo fiscal en segundos"

Scary!! But nothing to hide...

Surprised the government don’t take a top down look at everything given most systems are joined up and discover intelligence where people aren’t paying what they should be.

E.g. Foreign ownership, non resident tax, no Padron, no property rental tax, utility usage pattern throughout year

I've bought properties in Spain twice, and both times the lawyer I used sorted out all the utilities being put in my name, I didn't have to do anything myself immediately. Estate agents and gestors also offer this service if buyers haven't used a lawyer for the purchase. I could then shop around to see if a better deal was available at my leisure. I think the CNMC comparison site for energy suppliers is good, I have an inherent distrust of the commercial sites which claim to find consumers the best deals as they tend to only work with those companies who offer them financial incentives. Changing energy suppiers also works very smoothly in Spain, in my experience, all done online and after the initial application for a new contract everything is handled by the new supplier so that consumers don't have to notify the old supplier or communicate with them at all.

https://comparador.cnmc.gob.es/

Like LynnR said, any half-decent estate agent (if there are such things) or the solicitor you use to purchase will happily arrange everything for you.
Ours changed everything, and the estate agents (who are friends of ours) arranged to have internet supplied.

Because the solicitor did such a good job, they now deal with everything we need. I gave them POA to deal with any issue that arises. (My son, who is not a Spanish resident, owns 1/3 of the flat), and he would have to attend if we needed to do anything.
They have a Spanish accountant in the office, and he does our returns.
They helped us with our original residency and the renewal last year.
The agent they use for driving licences, etc., sorted the historic status for the classic car, both easier and quicker than I could have.
They even went to Suma and complained when the tax office demanded money from the sale of our storeroom (which we didn't sell) as somewhere a mistake was made and it had been transferred out of our names.

Ok, there is a cost to this, but I can talk to them whenever I want, and they only charge for work they actually do.

Spain is one of those countries where who you know and how they can assist are far more important than what you think you know.
And my grasp of the language might be good enough for little conversations but nowhere near good enough for any bureaucratic stuff.