are you using a 16yo no nothing professing to be a whizzkid ?

I spent time doing searches for the name I wanted, approached an internet registration company and it was all done on-line in 10mins.

sounds like your application has stalled and you are not being told what is happening

are you talking about registering a domain name ? I regularly register domain names for clients and the process can take less than an hour before it is active. I can only imagine there is more to what you are trying to do than you are telling

Apparently the hold up is in Madrid

No Ellis, not the domain name, I didn't mention "domain name" at all. The registered name that also protects intellectual property (copyright, in a way).

So much so, that I was forced to make this process in the UK and register the business there.

Thus, wanting to do things right can often cause a lot of problems and delay. I feel that this is one of the reasons there are so many expats working black. Apart from the obvious reason, greed.

I don't think greed is the primary motivation. There are plenty of other countries where the black economy is much less prominent.

It's simply a matter of pros and cons. Compared to other countries, there are just more cons in Spain than pros. It's certainly more difficult and expensive to be "correct" about everything, and working "black" is so ubiquitous, it's to a large extent expected that most will neglect "reveal" all... In many cases, taking the "correct" path can get you screwed, so many people naturally choose "alternate" strategies.

The typical brain-dead political approach to solving this is simply to impose more restrictions. But that's not thinking through it at all.

Our leaders need to look at what is the path of least resistance - rather than just putting up more barriers in the mistaken belief it will solve the problem.

I was watching a special focus on the Spanish economy on (I believe) France 24, and they inteviewed experts, economists, businesspeople, and people working on the ground - and they all said the same: For many, it's more desirable to conduct business in the black economy...

The conclusion of the program strongly suggested that Europe in general has failed to realise the root causes of the crisis in favour of downplaying the mistakes made with the common currency, to avoid political armageddon, and is only treating the symptoms with harsh austerity, which is only making the patient sicker...

amideislas,

I agree with what you are saying, but please notice that I said:
"Thus, wanting to do things right can often cause a lot of problems and delay. I feel that this is one of the reasons there are so many expats working black. Apart from the obvious reason, greed."

Not that greed is the primary motivation.

There was no need for you to do that. And you could have started the business while the registration process was going through

It seems like it is you who "knows nothing" which is probably why you like the rubbish that amideislas spouts out

Only a complete idiot would start a unique internet business without protecting their intellectual property first. Not being an idiot, myself, this registration, protection, was paramount.

As you mention the word "spouts", you remind me of a phrase commonly used in situations like this. Pot calling kettle ?

Don't take it seriously. Most people have him on ignore - for obvious reasons.

I have noticed that a lot of British doing business in Spain have UK registered websites.

Maybe because the domain suppliers sites are in English ?

You can register an available domain name with virtually any tld in 5 minutes with a credit card. Want a .es domain name? .co.uk? .com? .de?


Again, this should be a marketing decision. English feel most comfortable with .co.uk. Spanish: .es. Germans: .de

You can have an unlimited number of tlds directed to one site of you want. Simples.

5 minutes.

Im not sure thats what the OP meant , you can register any .es , .de, .com etc from any country .

Or in my case, to get what I wanted, "eu".

This may be a bit 'off topic' but pertinent nevertheless.
This is one of the problems with interent spam, because you can get a .co.uk address from, say, Nigeria or Hong Kong, people do NOT realise where the company is based, they see .co.uk and assume it is a UK business, therefore they are not as wary as they should be.