stevesainty

We received a notification from Sabadell, dated 2 July 2014 ( the amount was debited to our account on 23 July 2014).

The issuing body was Agencia Tributaria Estatal. An embargo for 120,00€

Additional text read,

"By virtue of the prevailing legislation, we have performed the above withholding as a result of the attachment order.
If, within the legally stipulated period, we are not informed that the attachment is abated, the amount withheld will be debited to the account and sent to the appropriate body.
For any clarification regarding the debt, you must contact the body issuing the attachment order, from which you should have received the compulsory notification."

To date we have had no correspondence from Hacienda.

We were in rented accommodation until November last year, our first tax year in Spain, and we temporarily moved back to our rental property in April due to having some building work done. When I checked the post box in our rental there was a notice of an undelivered letter from Hacienda dated January 2014. Obviously by then the letter was no longer with the post office. I just put it down to some standard correspondence about our house purchase in the previous November and did not pursue it.

We filed our tax returns in good time in 2014 and paid the first instalment of the due tax so it could not be a late filing fee.

The annoying thing about this is if it is a spurious charge it will probably cost us as much, in translators fees and travel to and from Orihuela, as the original charge.

Any ideas please?

Fred James

If you have a digital ID certificate you can access any past correspondence online.

stevesainty

Thank you Fred, I have started my application for a Digital Certificate.

stevesainty

Mystery solved.

After obtaining my digital certificate I could read the correspondence that was sent to me by visiting the Agencia Tributaria website.

Apparently on 11 May 2013 I committed a traffic offence.

INFORMACIÓN SOBRE LA DEUDA
FECHA:11052013 HORA:1245 VIA:A NUMERO:0007 KMTRO:478 HMTRO:1 CALLE:
POBLACION: DIRECCION:C-CRECIENTE MATRICULA:********
TIPO:TURISMO MARCA:FORD MODELO:FOCUS

As we were in rented accommodation on an urbanización where we rarely got post delivered because the address was so iffy, we never received notification of the offence or the fine, presumably for speeding.

The original fine was for 100€ but they added 20€ for non-payment.

We were then sent a letter from hacienda in November 2013, that required a signature, saying that we were going to have 120€ deducted from our bank account. As we were no longer living there there was no one to sign and therefore we never received the letter.

I suppose if we had received the fine in the first place we could have paid it early and received a 50% discount.

Be sure your sins will find you out!!

Also if you change your address make sure that you inform both trafico and hacienda

Steve

Fredbargate

Or close your bank account and leave the country

angiescarr

They can put their hands into your bank account at any time. No wonder people earn and pay cash! It's not conducive to mutual trust is it?

cliff b

Obvious prob is what to do with your hard earned to stop them (tax man) getting their hands on it?

Leave it in the UK, maybe in kids names?
Leave in UK in your name and just dont say anything?
Keep cash in the house? Not recommended!

Some out there must be stashing a bits here and there?

Maybe you could tell us what you have heard other people do not you of course?

Obviously we would not condone or suggest anyone should avoid tax.

angiescarr

If you're asking me? There isn't any. Neither to pay the bills nor to hide under the bed! However even a friend, who is a lawyer in Barcelona, told me that he/she doesn't declare cash income. I was surprised when everyone from the very bottom to the very top told me that. For years they've told me I'm a bit stupid. Well clearly I am because they were right. As we speak I'm waiting for a few paypal pounds to cross the ether to my husbands bank account mine is embargoed) so we can afford to fix our well pump (which gave out 2 days ago) or at least the petrol to fill our stash of bottles up at the well. This is the reason for my recent dire warnings about setting up as an Autonomo here if you don't have a large backup. There are a good few people who've found this out the same hard way as me and gone back to England.They don't post here. We still hope there's a way out and with the help of good friends and family there may be. Hoping for a tax refund to pay the Seguridad Social with! Love the country. Hate the system. So I can't tell you what you should do to avoid this trap because (maybe unfortunately) I didn't explore those options. I can only tell you it exists. Those who do it in the Brit community keep shtum and who can blame them? Those that don't need to do it because they're on a pension are as unaware of the consequences of being British in a Spanish system as I was. I'm still trying to find out what the two levels of Autonomos are and what are the differences in taxation (IVA especially) but nobody has answered my question on that. So clearly nobody on this forum knows. I speak reasonable spanish but when it comes to the niceties and legalities I'm as ignorant as a campesino and like them have to leave it to my gestor who tries to explain... but so far I'm still no wiser. We just have dire warnings as to what type of customers you can serve until you go alta as a wholesaler. I always was so I always had to pay and collect IVA but there does seem to be a lower level. There are also lower levels of postage costs but we're still not able to disentangle this web of intrigue! Will keep those few Autonomos here informed.