HBG

Hacienda are now taxing British run charities and will probably succeed in closing them down. That most of the charities are aimed to help the suffering Spanish people doesn't seem to matter to them.

http://www.coastrider.net/news/natio...s.html?start=8

snikpoh

.... so all the animal charities are at risk!!!??



Can they get more stupid!?

Neptuno

[QUOTE=snikpoh;10814839].... so all the animal charities are at risk!!!??

Not only animal charities- human ones too!
What about Gomad, Mabs etc?

Fred James

It doesn't look like a tax issue at all. It looks more like an employment issue. The report says it was the person from social security that issued the fine.

Also if it was Hacienda why would they ask them to go to the social security office? Hacienda don't normally do house calls either.

It looks like a case of incomplete reporting. That said, something is clearly wrong.

snikpoh

I agree, more an employment issue - but still bl**dy stupid!

cricketman

It sounds like a misunderstanding to me

These things happen when a business or charity has nobody on board who speak the local language

In Catalunya it is law that there must be a Catalan speaker available at all times for any entity that is open to the public. Maybe the rest of Spain should have a similar law?

me me

If you really think about it, that seems a bit daft too, what if the business is a one man band (who can´t afford staff) ran by an Argentinian who only speaks Spanish.

amideislas

Oh boy... I hear the R word coming...

me me

Which one would that be?

Reduce

Right

Relic

Reference

Robber

Roar

or

R_ C_ST?

HBG

The reporter who wrote the article is usually accurate and highly professional, and is not afraid to say what has to be said on matters affecting expats, and Spanish people.

He may have been restricted on allocated space, the article spans two pages in the paper edition.

I don't know how closely hacienda work with social security, they must be linked in their respective functions.

I do unpaid work for a HELP organisation and an animal charity and thought their charity status exempted them from normal tax, after all, the profit they make is distributed to where it is needed. I was going to add that maybe it's a strange concept here in Spain, but then I thought of Caritas.

cricketman

Then they are not allowed to open until the Argentinian learns Catalan

In Barcelona they ran free courses too, so no excuse

me me

There are abviously more morons in the country than I thought.

steviedeluxe

I don't agree with most Catalan language policies and this one does seem counterproductive in the business field, but to be fair Catalunya does generate quite a bit of revenue for the Spanish state, so they can't really fit into the moron category.

guirijohn

Last Sunday El Mundo reported that a senior employee of Hacienda in Catalonia had been demoted for instructing her staff to return money to taxpayers that had been overpaid. Although the official (and honest) policy was to return overpayments, a decision was taken at the highest level not to refund taxpayers unless they ask for the money. The employee, Elisabeth Cueto, took the Hacienda to court claiming constructive dismissal and won.

Whether the Hacienda is now refunding overpayments we do not know.

http://www.elmundo.es/elmundo/2013/0...374487137.html

guirijohn

Elsewhere I have read that the hacienda is routinely claiming tax has been underdeclared on the sale of properties (I know this has been discussed elsewhere). A demand for additional tax is issued that must be appealed within 14 days. In most cases where appeals are lodged the Hacienda drops the case.

The approach seems to be that if enough demands are issued some tax / social security will be collected and that may be what is happening here. The 14 day time limit seems particularly harsh.