Please could someone tell the benefits of getting Spanish residency.

You will need it for lots of official things like SS, padrone, schooling etc and it`s also a legal requirement to register with the police that you are living in Spain after being here for 3 months maximum.

It’s been discussed a thousand times, and I’m inclined to say that it’s totally unnecessary and a complete waste of time. We’re British, we’re entitled to live in an EU country, the Spanish love us and our money, that silly bit of paper you get when you turn holy means nothing,

Nobody wants to see it, your passport is what’s important. And your credit card.

Yes you are, but only if you conform to any requirement that country may make such as signing on the register of foreigners after you spend 90 days in that country.

Yes, you could consider it a pointless exercise but it is the law.

If you choose to ignore that, it's up to you. Many people do so, but it is important that visitors to this forum do understand what is legally required and then they can make up their mind what they choose to do.

I understand that Fred, but the Spanish authorities don’t give a ****, they really don’t.

Why should they? We are law-abiding people, paying our dosh to support the lazy fat Spaniards who can’t get out of bed in the mornings.

Fair comment but, as jdr pointed out, there are times when you need that certificate.

As opposed to when you lived in the UK, being a law abiding person who pays out his dosh to support the fat lazy Brit who cant get out of bed in the morning?

They love our money.........not convinced they love us Brits.

After living and working in Spain for 7+ years no-one ever asked to see proof of Residency until recently when I applied for my UK State Pension through the INSS. They would not even begin to process the claim without seeing a piece of green paper. So I had to go and apply so I could get my UK pension!!!
So it's definately required for anything through INSS.

I'm in the sad position where I pay taxes of sorts in both countries, I should have said fat, lazy Europeans - that's made me feel better.

I don't usually knock the Spanish, to be honest, I've got to the stage where I can't tell the difference when it comes to scroungers.

I can't resist one last, live example. A Spanish tradesman was supposed to call around two weeks ago, a nice fellow called Paco. He finally arrived a couple of days ago and done the small job in an hour.

When I paid him (he's on the paro), he wanted to give me his card. I mustered my best Spanish and told him to stick it. It made us both laugh.

I reckon, that must be on of the easiest things to say in any language, even without knowing one single word of the language in question.

Is that 90 consecutive days?

Yes. In theory you could just take a trip to Gib every three months, stay overnight and never have to register!

However if you did that you would still be deemed tax resident as that 183 day rule is not consecutive!

The whole system is a bit of a farce as, in theory, all those "Winter Brits" who come down for the winter would have to register and then de-register before they went back to the UK. If they did that the system would grind to a halt!

They don't make it easy do they!

I wonder what would happen if you got pulled up and did not have it and they knew you had been here over three months.
Would they deport you for not complying with the rules of Spain or just tell you to register, i suppose it depends on whether they had a good night previously ?

Well, you need it to get on the padrón - which you need for various reasons: buying a car and so on. Also, you'll need the certificado, along with your passport, when you vote in next May's local elections.
Which I'm sure you will be intending to do.