Headhunter

Hi Everyone,

Just joined so hope you will be able to help. I am British and have been an expat for the last 17 years, mostly in Asia. My other half is a US citizen currently based in South America which is not a feasible long term solution as I have just got back from flying 25 hours to see her, so we are looking to bridge the gap and base and make a home for ourselves in Spain (we are both Spanish speakers) and respectively fly East & West for work when needed. Lots of questions, but here are the basics;

1) Residency - presume this is no problem for me as a UK Citizen but problematic for her as she only gets 90 days every 6 mths as a tourist. If we get married, can she get Spanish residency easily as the husband of a EU/UK Citizen?

2) Work - since both our work is likely to continue to be outside of Spain (and taxed outside), are there any tax or other implications (healthcare etc) than need to be considered ? I have a small company in Hong Kong that does consulting work in Asia and plan to continue doing this remotely.

Essentially, we would like to make Spain our base, with a potential family in the future, but continue to derive our income work from outside and would appreciate advice on the best way to set this up.

Realise that some of his may have been covered before but thank you for your thoughts.

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

Point 1. As you are an EU citizen your wife would automatically get a Spanish residency card.

Point 2. If you live in Spain for more than 183 days in one calendar year you will be deemed as tax resident in Spain and pay Spanish tax on your worldwide income.

Horlics

For somebody in your position the whole of Europe can be pretty tough. I don't know what you currently pay in tax (personally and your company) but it's going to be a lot higher here when compared to much of Asia and the Middle East.

I spent a few years in the ME and the British Government is quite happy to forget about you while you're gone. In fact, they're not very interested in your return until you start to make an income again (while living in Britain). But once you are back and earning, they're very interested.

As well as the rules about the number of days that qualify your place of residence, there are other factors like 'centre of life' (or something like that), which means, for example, that a man spending the majority of his time outside of the country might still qualify as resident if his wife and kids live and go to school in the UK.

I know it's easy to lose touch of all this when out of the country for so long. I did and only reacquainted myself on my return. Sadly, the Revenue's book of guidance is 105 pages in length.

Overall though, if you live in Spain more than half the year, you'll be paying personal income tax there and your company corporate taxes in HK.

Headhunter

Thanks for the quick responses.

Horlics, appreciate your insights but Fortunately, I have no plans to return to the UK as a tax resident and am aware of the average 90 days pa over 4 yr average.

Fred James, good news on the residency issue if we are married. I am presuming there is a distinction between being simply resident and tax resident (183+days) as the plans is that I would continue to be tax resident in HK. Which leads to the question of how many people live outside the formal residency status, whether this is a disadvantage in day to day dealings, and how alert are the Spanish immigration and tax authorities to how many days you spend in country given the open Shengen borders ?

Not trying to beat the system per but want to know where I stand before making any life changing decisions.

Swei

It is easy for your wife to resident in Spain than in Uk.But it takes 6 months to finish all the paperwork.

My husband was abroad many years like you. We came to Spain to buy a property last Oct. Then he got his residency in Dec. I went back to China to get all the docs. I got them in last Jun but they are older in Dec and my visa ran out.
Spanish government need the official translated marriage certificate to be less than 90 days old when your wife apply the residency.

Finally I applied my residency in Mar and they approved in Apr. But I still did not get it yet.

You need to show 3 month bank statement and buy expensive health insurance to get residency even though you are European.

Swei

If you do not want to pay tax or go through all these trouble, you can just buy a holiday home and stay less than 6 months a year.

Once you get your residency, you cannot leave Spain more than 6 months a year. Otherwise,it will be cancelled.

Horlics

Sorry, I should have said, I did realise that you weren't going to live in the UK, but used UK as a reference because the whole of Europe is becoming similar.

The situation now is that if you spend the majority of the time in a country then that's where you should pay your tax. Worse, if your family is permanently based in a country then that can override other circumstances, meaning you would have to pay tax there even if you didn't spend the majority of your time there.

When I was in the ME the US citizens I worked with were unfortunate in having to pay some tax in the US even though they were living in a tax free country. Apparently the only escape was to relinquish US citizenship!