My husband works across the internet for a UK employer, (he is fully employed by them not self employed) that employer has no business connections in Spain. We have spent many months trying to find a way into the spanish social security system.

We have just had yet another letter from the Seguridad Social, this time saying that my husbands UK employer must register as a business here in Spain before he can pay contributions into the spanish system. This seems madness as they do no business in Spain.
Can anyone make any sense of this?

Yvonne

Hi,

He needs to register as self employed and pay into it that way.

But he is not self employed and only works for one company so should not be self employed.

Yeah, it's not a straight forward process. But that is basically what he will have to do. I'm gonna have to do the same. I work for a Dutch company and it's also what I had to do in England.

If he is resident in Spain, then he should pay his taxes here and then he would be in the system.

He does pay his tax here but that does not put you in the social security system, I wish it did it would make things so much easier!

I'm fairly sure he would have to register as self employed. But if you find another way around it, let me know.

The people in the UK social security office think he should not have to do that, it is them that are writing to Spain SS to try to sort things out.

They also told me that if the situation was reversed then a spanish person would be able to direct pay just their employee contributions into the UK system.

I dont believe we will ever get to the bottom of it but if we do solve it I will let you know............dont hold you breath!!

Well, I looked for ways to pay my income tax and national insurance, in the UK, and they told me I would have to be self employed as the company I work for has no presence here. I was then later advised I would have to do the same thing in Spain.

YMF, did you ever get an answer back from the SS in the UK? I'm registered as self employed here (as i was self employed for two years) but have just been taken back on as a full time employee by my UK firm, who i also work for via internet and occassionaly go back to London. I've just come back from my accountant who is saying the same thing, tax isn't a problem, i pay tax ni the UK for the days i'm there (deducted by my employer) we just do a return in may for the preceding year, but SS is the sticking block, i shouldn't have to end up paying twice..

If it's too dull for this thread and no one else can answer / seems interested, would you mind pm'ing me?

ta.

I spent a couple of years trying to sort out this very same problem. I had conflicting advice from different uk departments - some said I should be paying into the uk system, some said I shouldn't.
I had conflicting advice from Spanish gestors as well, some saying I would have to be self-employed with the uk company instead of fully employed.

In the end I set up as an autonomo (self-employed) in Spain with my business being Computer Services. I file tax returns every three months and pay 212.34€ into Spanish social security every months. Once a year I include my uk salary (which is free of uk tax and NI) as other income. I pay the appropriate amount in tax to the Spanish authorities and claim whatever allowances I'm entitled to for myself and my family. My gestor handles it all for me.

By paying social security my family and I are registered with the Spanish health system. My "business" over here is very small and doesn't generate much income, but as long as it shows something then there doesn't seem to be a problem.

thank you so much, that makes some sense, although a couple of points.

a) It means that i'm going to have to pay social security in both countries? (Which isn't necessarily a bad thing (apart from financially!) in the event i need to move back the UK)

b) my tax returns every quarter for money 'earnt' in Spain will be zero as I don't have any invoices. what happens then?

c) this is all going to be a pain in the neck when i want to get finance isn't it? or at least until i've done an annual tax return...

My daughter is coming over and will run her own business earning not alot to start with. Does she have to register as autonomo as E212.34 is alot to pay out every month before she earns anything. Is there any other way round it if you are self employed.

a) As I'm officially resident in Spain I have a "NT" tax code in the uk so I get paid free of deductions. I don't see why you should pay SS in uk if you live in Spain - it's not as though you can access the NHS or anything is it?

b) Someone on this site mentioned that the Spanish authorities are wise to foreigners setting up as Autonomo and paying the small SS contributions purely in order to access the Spanish health system, and the business not actually doing any. Understandable really because it works out a lot cheaper than paying privately. It might be an idea to make sure you have a few invoices to put through the books.

c) Don't know anything about finance. Fred is your man.

That figure of 212.34€ is what I pay with my buisiness as Computer Services. I believe the amount is variable depending on what type of business it is. I think it is typically about 250€.

I understand that you have to pay the full SS every month whether your business actually earns anything or not.