Bank Charges for Non Residents

Who do you bank with?

It's not non-resident tax - you handle those tax returns yourself every year.

The charge is for the bank obtaining for you the necessary certificates of non-residence, which they have to do if you don't do it yourself.

Have a look at the first section of:

https://www.costablancaforum.com/area/almorad%C3%AD-spain-11/taxes-suma-nie-tax-advice-in-almorad%C3%AD-25/jims-guide-residency-and-non-residency-certificates-75179/

Thanks Jim, I can see now why we have received this charge.  However I have been doing a bit of investigation and came across thread on another forum which states that the ECJ have ruled that all EU citizens have to be treated equally. Hence the ruling on Capital Gains Tax, Income Tax etc should be the same for both resident & non residents in Spain. The principle therefore is that we should not pay extra for being non-resident. The person who posted this says he stated this and got his charges fefunded.

Just wondered with your massive knowledge on all things Sanish if you have come across this

Flattery will get you nowhere, but it's a good question, and I can only offer an opinion rather than fact.

Banks do an annual report to the tax office, and one of the things they have to report is whether or not an account holder is resident.

It's easy for banks to identify a resident, as all they need to do, even if a customer hasn't shown them a residency certificate, is to look at all the regular transactions on the account. In addition, they can look for the once or twice yearly resident tax payments. It's a long time since we did it, but anyone changing from an expensive non-resident account to a less expensive resident account may have to provide proof of residency.

It's not as easy to identify a non-resident, so banks have to obtain proof of this from the tax office.

If you challenged a bank, I think they'd say that the tax office charge the same for a non-residency certificate as they do for a residency certificate, so it's a level playing field.

We have had a non residency bank account for three years now, paid our non residence tax thru the same bank, we have never had an addition charge taken by the bank as the original poster has stated.

Could it be that the bank recognise the return has already been done?

I'd guess so, Mary. 

If they are aware of your tax return then they've no need to obtain a non-residency certificate.

It's a good point, though - anyone else paying non-resident tax from their Spanish bank and still being charged for a non-residency certificate?

I have just had 25 euros taken out of our bank account x 2. We bank with la caixa.

I pay my non residency tax every year in plenty time.

I too have never seen this charge before.

I have just queried it on line with la caixa but don’t expect to get a reply!