cermignano

You do not need to be autonomo. But yes you need to pay your taxes. But your employer should be dealing with all this

chslh66

Hellmet, did you resolve your issue?

I'm in the same position - want to live in Spain working remotely for a UK company with a UK salary.

Currently seeking advice from a gestor (not received yet).

Fred has kindly advised on this and my separate thread.

alinsitges

I have read all the above with great interest - and hope someone may be able to help me with a similar issue.

I am a salaried employee of a UK company, resident in Spain, I pay social security in the UK, and also file income tax returns both in the UK and Spain. I have recently been asked by the Ministry of Employment to show my registration on the "Declaracion Censal" and "el Regimen Especial de Trabajadores Autonomos" - basically demonstrating that I am an autonomo here (but I am not!)

If I understand the above thread correctly, being an autonomo is not strictly necessary - can someone explain / point me in the direction of the relevant law / ruling or someone who can help resolve this?

Many thanks in advance!

chslh66

You say you are resident in Spain - I assume tax resident?

From my research the critical thing here is WHERE you undertake the work to earn your UK derived salary.

Do you go to UK to work - and earn an income

seascape

Hi all - we are a UK company with a Spanish employee who is looking to return home. Our plan is for him to contact HMRC before he goes and advise he will no longer be tax resident which will give him a NT tax code. He will continue to be paid UK salary but this will now be gross into his UK back account. Our company will then register as a non-resident without permanent establishment company in Spain which will give us a social security number so that we can make social security payments, we will also be registered with a non resident VAT number which we need. We are told the social security office requires a Spanish bank account for auto withdrawal of social security payments, and that can be a employee account set up for that purpose. So UK gross funds will get transferred to this new bank account, tax and social security will come off this and the remainder transferred to the employee Spanish account as pay. We then also need to revise his contract to make sure its compliant with Spanish requirements.
At least that's the plan - if anyone sees a flaw please let me know!

chslh66

This is the interesting part for me:

"Our company will then register as a non-resident without permanent establishment company in Spain which will give us a social security number so that we can make social security payments, we will also be registered with a non resident VAT number which we need"

Have you actually done this yet? Who advised this was possible? Have you looked at cost and timescale?

This solution would mean the person in Spain working for UK company would avoid needing to be an Autonomo.

​​​The main issue (as an Autonomo) in my case is, because I'm a professional, I'd become separate from the UK company requiring me to provide my own PI insurance - because I'm effectively working as a consultant providing my services to the UK company (not directly employed by them).

seascape

We're in the process of going through it, looking at info from Strong Abogados which suggests that route. Costs not much given the hassle it takes away, timescales seem ok but not yet confirmed.
The other route we considered was having the employee set up as a contractor in Spain (the route you mention) but whilst perhaps easier for us, it wasn't best for the employee we felt.
I'll post again as we go through it/complete it with some feedback!

chslh66

If you could keep us updated that would be appreciated - I might investigate this route too, thank you.

Notdunroamin

A basic principal is that you pay you tax where you do the work and if that's in Spain then even if you are paid from UK then once you have demonstrated that you are in the Spanish tax system then beyond giving you a nil tax code HMRC have nothing more to do with it.

It's preposterous to imagine that you can work in one country but benefit from more favourable tax allowances in another!

It's also a myth that healthcare is free for all residents.

esanchezros

How did you do in the end with this set up? Could you share roughly how much did your company have to pay to set up your employee this way and how was Strong Abogados?
Thanks!

seascape

Hi, ok an update.

We had to get company docs (Articles etc) translated in order to set up the company in Spain £1,100 - just looked around for a translator
We had to get employee contract adapted and translated £1k - incwell.eu
We had to get Spanish employer number for non-resident company £1300 - incwell.eu
We had to get a digital certificate after this registration £100 - incwell.eu
We had to set up Power of Attorney to our supplier Incwell to allow them to manage tax affairs on our behalf - our lawyers authorised this (signed it) for free (unusual)
We set up PoA for our employee to allow him to open up a Spanish bank account - signed as above
We had to courier these docs to Spain
We are setting up an account with a Spanish bank which needs the company registered and the PoA for the employee agreed
Total one off costs around £3,500

Ongoing costs will be filling in all required tax forms during the year, doing the payroll and social security filing and reviewing and responding to Spanish tax notifications - around £1,300 per year to incwell

Employee will continue to be paid in £ but gross, this will be transferred using Transferwise to the Spanish account, Incwell will calculate deductions and pay them locally.

This is all about 90% of the way there, we had to chase several times to keep it moving.

lurchio

Can I ask, how can the OP satisfy the Autonomo criteria if he is only receiving income from ONE Client company that used to employ him? Surely that is not the spirit of the Law?

esanchezros

Many thanks for sharing seascape, this is really useful.
Just a quick question, what made you go for creating a Limited Company (Sociedad Limitada) rather than just apply for a registration number (CIF) as a non resident company in Spain?