Tax residency question - how to deal with transition from UK tax to Spanish tax?
 

Now our residency is sorted out, I've turned attention to all the other issues and am uncovering areas of uncertainty where I thought I had understood things well.

One issue is tax residency. I had been told, including by an accountant/gestor here, that I will not need to submit a tax return for 2020 (in 2021) because I have not been in Spain for long enough - I arrived at the end of September and have had no income in Spain to report this year.

However, I've recently read things that say that registering for residency (i.e. TIE) is treated by Hacienda as a recognition of tax residency, which would mean that 2020 does need to be reported.

I am in the process of seeking further professional advice on this question, but I wanted to post here too to ask if anyone has personal experience of this situation - i.e. did any of you move to Spain in the second half of a year, and if so how did you deal with that half year for tax purposes?

Thanks!

Re: Tax residency question - how to deal with transition from UK tax to Spanish
 

You become tax resident when you spend more than 183 days in Spain in one calendar year. So, you will not be tax resident until 2021 and will have to declare the 2021 income in 2022. This has always been the case and the TIE doesnt make any difference.

Re: Tax residency question - how to deal with transition from UK tax to Spanish
 

Thanks, Fred - that's reassuring and what our local accountant said.

I guess something to anticipate is to prove how long we've been here if it ever comes to that. All our Spanish life begins in September - bank account, rent etc. but we don't have evidence of entry to the country because we drove. I tried getting a stamp at a border station but no joy. We will have a record of the ferry crossing.

When I did the fingerprints appointment, they actually pulled up an old address I had when I did a gap year at 19 years more than 20 years ago! So having read some scary stories about retrospective tax investigations, it has crossed my mind that I might need to prove that I haven't lived here for the past two decades! Anyway, that shouldn't be a problem in general, but it might be challenging to prove that we weren't here in Jul and most of Aug this year, given that we were basically locked in the house in the UK, not driving anywhere and working from home. There will be bank transactions at UK supermarkets. Anyway, my lawyer would tell me not to overthink things at this point!

Re: Tax residency question - how to deal with transition from UK tax to Spanish
 

Fiscally speaking residence in Spain dates back to the day you signed on a Padron and that's because the padron is a legal declaration that you do in fact live in Spain and why non resident holiday home owners should never be on one.

Actual days in country and residencias/TIE's are something else.

Re: Tax residency question - how to deal with transition from UK tax to Spanish
 

Thanks - spoke to another accountant yesterday who is experienced in immigration and he confirmed that there's no problem and advised me to register as a tax payer with hacienda and as non-resident with HMRC on the same day at the beginning of 2021.

Re: Tax residency question - how to deal with transition from UK tax to Spanish
 

Good overview here

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/living-i...#money-and-tax