Tax return question - help please?

I'm always willing to try and help someone who wants to do the job properly.

The transition year when becoming a tax resident can be a bit messy to understand, and without going into details, my recommendation is that you file your first tax return here for 2017.

What you need to do is submit a Modelo 030 to register for tax, and I suggest you do that asap.

• Modelo 030 (PDF)
  

Once you've (in twelve months) submitted a tax return here, you can the follow the necessary procedure to get out of the Inland Revenue system. They'll still issue a Notice of Coding, but the code will be NT - no tax (unless you've been in Government employment, in which case that income will still be taxed in the UK, but taken into account in calculating your tax rate here).

For the first tax return, you'll have paid tax in the UK, but this is declared in your Spanish tax return, and the tax paid is offset against the tax due here.

I very strongly suggest that you bring yourself up to speed on the tax system here. I've been doing tax returns for ourselves and for friends for some years. During that time, the friends have given me details of previous tax returns prepared by 'experts', and every one I've seen has been wrong in at least one aspect.

Doing your own tax return is now quite easy. In the early days you used to have to buy a paper 100 from a newsagent and fill it in; or if you wanted to do it online you needed an electronic certificate. However, over the last few years it's got a lot easier. If you've got what I call normal income, in the form of pensions, and annuities and/or savings, there are actually only two boxes on the tax return that you need to enter figures into. 

The Spanish Ministry of Finance don't publish the exchange rate to be used for converting sterling to euros. I recently spoke to Agencia Tributaria and they confirmed that one needs to take the average figure for the year, but this isn't published in Spain. For a few years I've been using the average for the year rate published by the European Central Bank, and AEAT agree with this.

As an aside, I do tax returns for friends in exchange for a menu del dia for my wife  and myself, and the value of that meal should be declared in my tax return as a payment in kind. For some reason, I always forget to declare it!

I always submit our tax returns as soon as the system goes live early in April, and whilst doing so I do write up of what you need to do and what the relevant AEAT links are. When the time comes, ask and I'll post the procedure.

Also, if you wish to next year send me a PM giving your income details, I can work out the tax that will be due.

Hi Jim, thanks so much, that's very helpful indeed, and I appreciate the time and detail you took in the reply. I'll register, as you suggested and maybe we can be in touch next April when the new window opens.

Best regards, Steve

Hi I also became resident in October last year.  My solicitor is requesting I do my tax returns this April for the months Oct, Nov, Dec 2016 they charging €145 (just myself) Is this normal?

Excellent advice, I will be saving this for later in the year when we make the permanent move to Spain.

Thanks - it's nice to be appreciated. 

I am a member of the original Costa Blanca Forum and in its heyday put on multiple posts about what's involved in Spanish income tax and how to do your returns, but unfortunately all that information was lost when the forum was re-hashed. I still have all that information and could update it and post it on this forum, if and when I have time to do that.

If you'll excuse me, I'm now going to have a little rant, in the hopes it might encourage people who aren't doing tax returns to do so in the future.

Not submitting a tax return is illegal - you are legally required to pay tax on your worldwide income in the country in which you are resident. Not doing returns isn't just a matter of diddling the tax man, it's also defrauding the people who do comply with the law. To explain this simply, if you live on a community of 100 residents, and it costs €1000 to run that community, then everyone should pay €10. If 50 people don't make that payment, then those 50 that do pay would have to pay €20 each. It's exactly the same with income tax - the tax dodgers result in those of us who do pay tax having to pay more than if everyone paid tax.

Rant over, and congratulations to Steve and John who want to do the job properly.

Hello there. 

I can't positively say that fee is excessive, because I don't know how much work is needed. 

However, all Spanish taxpayers receive free advice if they book an appointment with the AEAT employees. You should be able to do so on the AEAT website. 

As another member said, once you have done your first tax revenue, it won't be very hard to repeat the same process, as long as the income sources are the same. 

 I hope this information is helpful. 

Thanks for your support, Kim

Of all the people I know, only one of them is fully legal as regards tax, and I know that because I see all her income details and do her tax returns. All the rest either don't do returns at all, or only declare part of their income.

I know that the people at the coal face in Agencia Tributaria don't have time to do follow up checks on people. However, if AEAT set up a dedicated squad to, for example, check out details of expat residents and the information that's available to AEAT by virtue of their having access to the Inland Revenue computer, then the income they could generate by demanding four years back tax plus a swingeing fine would pay for the costs of that squad many, many times over.