Sure, you can work illegally

But you will not have access to the Spanish health or education systems. When you apply to a nursery or school you need to prove your Spanish income. How will you do that? Hacienda is known to cross-check these

You can work illegally in any country you want as long as you dont mind being illegal and will accept any consequences i.e. fines/prison sentences etc

I assume your salary is going to change each week then, or have you made allowances for that? I mean that in respect of the rate of exchange.

@cricketman - I appreciate what you are saying, I really do ... however, I was not an exception. I've outlined what I did, and the fact that the professionals were happy with it. It's an internet based business paying taxes in the UK. I suppose in that respect the OP could simply open a UK Ltd company to invoice his employer (the costs aren't great) and use it to his benefit . There are lots of benefits in being a company director

As said, I'm back in the UK now so I have no intention to mislead, I will only say there is more than one way to skin a cat, and with the complexities of International tax laws its somewhat confusing sometimes

I'll leave it there, I've said enough

Oh, and just on a note you mentioned earlier in the thread, I forgot to mention

Some years ago I employed 2 owner drivers to work for us. They owned their own equipment. They worked for three years and we had an Inland revenue visit. HMRC advised us that they could not be self employed, because they worked only for us. That meant that HMRC went first to the drivers, and then when they couldnt pay, straight to us for the tax. Then a few weeks later the DHSS approached us and told us as we had paid the tax we now had to pay the NI, approximately £40k in total.

Thats what I mean about the master / slave relationship I mentioned earlier

To make matters worse, our blue chip accountants (you mentioned going to professionals) told us that there was nothing we could do, we would have to pay the tax. We did. When the DHS came to collect the NI, they asked us why we hadn't disputed the original tax .... because if we had, HMRC would have almost certainly halved it. So much for our accountants, who we immediately sacked.

So that's why with most things these days I never take the word of one professional, I always get a second opinion

cricketman, if I get that Spanish workplace (there is a very high possibility of it), then it pays my SS and therefore healthcare, schools etc.
I just want to keep my UK employer as a backup and extra income.

Of course, if I do not get it, then I will have to think of some way to have SS in Spain.

Mitzyboy, yes, exchange rate is inevitable evil unfortunately.

Thanks for your advice.

This sounds like a third opportunity, though will have to dig deeper on the process.

Go online, google for Ltd company setup. Approx £60. Annual accounts, but you can do them yourself online. Annual return about £25.

Benefits in kind, offsetting acceptable costs against income, petty cash ... etc etc, some while back I claimed mileage through the company too

Yes absolutely, that is the case in Spain too

The new TRADE contract somewhat gets around that problem, but still as an autonomo you are meant to have more than one client

Another way around it would be to issues split invoices, with one going to one part of the company, and the other to a different bit (preferably with a different company name).

As we can tell, there is no easy answer. The complete and proper solution would be for the UK company to open a Spanish branch and get registered on the Spanish social security system and pay the salary and the social security of the OP through that. But of course this is a pain and expense to the employer

Thanks, will do!

No, this is not an option as company is a small one. Interesting, whether same rules appliy to UK ltd working for only one customer

Situation is non-sense if we look at it.

I am in Spain. I pay VAT on goods etc.
I want to earn money. I want to pay taxes. I want to pay SS.

But my company does not want to register with Spain system as it is complicated and excessive wor for them. Just to stress it: they also WANT to pay taxes, but in a bit less stressful way.

Result:

Perfectly legally I cannot work for the company. (if we do not take into account all these questionable autonomo masking schemes).
I do not earn money
I do not pay taxes (which effects Spanish economy in some way)
Theoretically, as I am not allowed to earn money this way (though I am ready to pay all corresponding taxes), I have to go for a unemployement benefits, as i want to eat sometimes.

So, instead of allowing me to work and pay loads of taxes, they lose money. That's brilliant, Spain And then there are moans about sinking economy.
It is 2013 outside. Internet and remote working is not something unique anymore.

Sorry for such an expressive post, but it just gets on my nerves a bit

You will find exactly the same requirements in any country in the world. If you are resident in a country then your employer must be able to pay your salary and social security/national insurance payments in your country of residence

It hasnt annoyed me at all. It is something you need to sort out if you want to live in Spain and have the benefits of working for a UK company. If not, then look for a Spanish employer! That will be even more difficult

By the way, as you have never worked in Spain then you will not be entitled to unemployment benefits here.

I've been through the pain of the Spanish business system and it really is a pain for 'English-thinking' people. I eventually lessened the pain by taking on a Spanish partner who knew the system and acted accordingly.

I'm out of it now, thank God, and I sleep soundly at night. I don't know how best to describe my experience in Spain while in business, a sometimes lucrative nightmare? Did it cause me to become an allay cat without morals (tax wise at least)?

Probably neither. I still drive down to Marbella once a year to visit my former Spanish tax advisor from many years ago. We're both retired now and have a good laugh about what used to happen.

I can't pass on any advice because I think everything is different now, and I don't want to get anyone into trouble. My pal in Marbella blames it all on Bill Gates and his daft computers. It removed the human touch from the world.

Sure, but why not allow ME to pay all these insurances by myself, as like being an autonomo? At least as an exception for such expat cases.. What's the problem with that?

Such laws force honest people to fly below radar, because I do not want to give up my dream of living (and possibly contributing) to Spain or lose my well-paid job in UK just because Spain does not want my very same taxes to be paid in a bit different way.

thanks, laughing

Why can you not become, not UK employed and just bill the UK company for your work from Spain ?

andyrich666, yes, this is the "autonomo" solution.

As far as I read, people name possible issues both for me and employer if he is my only customer. Of course, it also should be VAT-IVA free in this case.

If you had a self employed Gardner to look after your grounds and he **only** done your grounds, are you saying that is a issue ?

Yes, in which case you should employ him and pay his social security contributions

My sister-in-law employs a nanny part time in Barcelona and must pay her social security contributions as it is regular work i.e. the same hours every week, and even though she is also employed part time at a local school

Tricky question. My garden is not my company. Just check Mitzyboy's story above: they had to pay employment taxes and NI, though they were working with self-employed drivers. Tax offices tend to treat such relationship as normal employment.

Now, I found an interesting thread here:

http://www.spainexpat.com/spain/forum/viewthread/3481/

And guy there wrote that he succeeded to get what I (and many others) need!
To cut the long story short, he just got the SS number to pay SS by himself from the total gross salary received from UK.