Originally Posted by Fred James

Absolutely correct - the law is quite clear, to sign on the Padron you must be resident in Spain which means living there for more than half of the year - in fact unless you are tax resident in Spain you probably don't qualify to be on the Padron.

Unfortunately, as you say, many town halls have encouraged people who do not live in Spain to sign on just because they have holiday homes in Spain - to increase the subsidy they get from central government.

Bearing in mind the current "crisis" I would not be surprised if the tax office did not look at the people on the Padron and for those who did not declare their income for tax in Spain to suddenly find they get a letter from the tax office!

Originally Posted by Solarwhizz

SO how do you buy a new car, or even pay the annual tax on it, as this is needed to register change of ownership

Originally Posted by Fred James

Do what everyone else does - sign on the padron. I was merely pointing out that, in theory, you should not be on the padron if you are not a resident.

But in Spain who cares about the theory!

Originally Posted by snikpoh

What discounts are these then? I've never received a discount on any of the various taxes that I pay (car tax, IBI, building tax (for reforms), income tax etc..) and I've been on the padron from day 1 when I arrived here.

Originally Posted by Rambling Rose

No one seems to have responded to this. We have never received any discounts for registering on the padron either. The only difference is that we are allowed to pay our council tax in 2 lumps in May and October instead of 100 in July. Makes no difference to us so we don't bother to split it.

If anyone has benefitted from discounts I would be very interested to know what they are.

Rose