Lynn R

I started looking for a house in Spain in 2002, after thinking about it for a few years and getting my finances in order. Even then, when the present crisis wasn't even a black cloud on the horizon, there was no shortage of horror stories about people who had bought off plan or or new developments, the developer had gone bust and they had either lost their money or found themselves living amongst a building site with none of the facilities they were promised, often without proper utilities. The "land grab" issues in certain areas where people lost large parts of the land surrounding their houses and also had to pay large sums for the area to be "urbanised" were also well publicised.

I swore (and have always advised other people to do the same) that I wouldn't touch any property with a bargepole that hadn't been in existence, in an established location, for at least 20 years. It doesn't mean that every such property will be 100% problem free, but it certainly drastically reduces the chances of finding yourself up the creek without the proverbial paddle.

Rosemary

[QUOTE=Lynn R;10941119]I started looking for a house in Spain in 2002, after thinking about it for a few years and getting my finances in order. Even then, when the present crisis wasn't even a black cloud on the horizon, there was no shortage of horror stories about people who had bought off plan or or new developments, the developer had gone bust and they had either lost their money or found themselves living amongst a building site with none of the facilities they were promised, often without proper utilities. The "land grab" issues in certain areas where people lost large parts of the land surrounding their houses and also had to pay large sums for the area to be "urbanised" were also well publicised.

I swore (and have always advised other people to do the same) that I wouldn't touch any property with a bargepole that hadn't been in existence, in an established location, for at least 20 years. It doesn't mean that every such property will be 100% problem free, but it certainly drastically reduces the chances of finding yourself up the creek without the proverbial paddle.[/QUOTE]

We had a similar criteria due to all of our research of the problems that some people had encountered.

Rosemary

agoreira

I think most could go on Mastermind answering questions on UK Soaps! As far as Spanish kids are concerned, the much quoted Med Diet is a myth, they are the most obese in Europe, over half are overweight.

Neptuno

Can't see what that's got to do with tax, unless the tax on fatty foods is increased!

Domino

and some of the companies concerned were owned by Brits who used that "connection to home" to entice people to invest their savings.
same as the companies who used to take over a couple of meeting rooms in local well known hotels and advertise such new developments.
even got one or two famous names i.e. footballers, tv stars etc to front the operation

people seem to want to blame the Spanish for all this but most of it was by Brits, who promised the Spanish builders tons of work - they got some but were "surprised" to not get paid when payment was due.

perhaps it is the fault of Spain for importing con-merchants, fly by nights and the like, after all you have to blame someone other than yourself for being conned.

Kezar

We are planning to retire in 2 years time and have just purchased a small house in Murcia.

We have 2 options on retirement :
1. spend 12 mths in spain or,
2. spend 6 mths Spain and the either 2 x 3 months or 1 x 6 months
in another country(s).

With regard to the 12 month Spain option....
I was ok with paying with the addition income tax in Spain, and the CGT but not the additional IHT potential hit due to the massive allowance differences 16,000 euros to £325,000 in the UK. Is there a way to LEGALLY minimise IHT payable?

With regard to the second option......
As I would have not spent sufficient time in any other country to qualify for that countries tax Am I correct that I would be taxed in the UK?

thanks for any advice

Rosemary

As Concierge for the Spanish section of BE I would like to say hello and welcome.

BE is a very large expat website, so if you have problems finding your way around we have concierges who will try to direct you. The moderators for the Spanish forums are Mitzyboy and Fred James, moderators are there to ensure that the site runs smoothly within the rules of BE. Problems and complaints should always be addressed to a moderador who will look into the matter and deal with it efficiently and fairly. Our members who post in the Spain Forums are friendly and helpful with a wealth of knowledge of the issues of living in Spain. At the top of the page you will find a quirkily named thread called Free Beer which is full of important and useful information. Hope you enjoy your time participating in the forums.

Please let me know if you need any further help.

Rosemary

Fred James

Yes, HMRC are unlikely to allow you to claim non residency unless you can prove you are tax resident somewhere else.

Irrespective of your tax residency your house in Spain will be subject to Spanish IHT.

Kezar

ok thanks, I fully expect to be subject to tax on my Spanish property but hopefully not on my UK funds

me me

I take it that you WANT to be a UK tax resident.

That is the best thing you can do, both of us are going to become UK tax res. next year.

As far as I can see the only people who would be better of with the Spanish taxman, are people who don´t have any/many UK assets.

Look after number 1 and 2, no one else will.

Lynn R

If you are non-resident in Spain (here for 182 days or less) then no, you would not be subject to IHT on your UK assets. You would need to submit a non-resident tax return each year and pay the non-resident taxes (dependent on the catastral value of your house, usually not a huge amount).

If you go for the two periods of 90 days each option, you would not need to sign the official register of foreign residents either (you would be required to do that after being here for 90 days or more, which requires providing proof of sufficient income and health cover in order to prove that you would not be a burden on the Spanish state). You would then need to rely on using your EHIC card to access any health treatment you might need during your stay, however, which might be problematical if you should need anything other than emergency treatment.

Kezar

So we could use the EHIC for up to 3 months at a time? We are retiring well before our UK state retirement age so would therefore not be entitled to Spanish healthcare cover.

We were considering either long term holiday insurance (backpackers) or private medical cover whichever worked out best. Hopefully whichever we decide we were going to look at worldwide so would cover us for the non Spanish periods.

Would long term holiday insurance be acceptable as proof of health cover?

Lynn R

According to this:-


http://www.healthcareinspain.eu/the-ehic.php

you can use it if you are a second home owner spending some months of the year in Spain, which would seem to cover your situation. However, if you needed treatment over a few months I think you might encounter problems, although the EHIC is supposed to cover you for any treatment needs that arise "during your visit".

You don't have to provide proof of health cover unless you sign the official register of foreigners after the 90 day period.

I'm not sure how much the long term holiday insurance policies cost, but for comparison purposes, my OH and I are currently paying €106 per month for private health insurance in Spain, for both of us. That company doesn't cover the Murcia area, but you might like to investigate online quotes from health insurance companies that do.

Nora77

all this tax increases- we can thank to EU officers !

Fred James

What tax increases?