Wise 'cashback' and Belgian & Spanish Tax

Posted: Thu Aug 17, 2023 11:12am

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Like some other members, I have Wise accounts. Wise has recently started paying 'cashback' (interest) from which Belgian tax is being deducted at the rate of 30%. It is obligatory to declare this income on annual Spanish tax declarations, which, for me, means paying more tax on the this income at 37%, meaning the income is being taxed at a total of 67%. I have clicked on the Wise links to various Belgian tax forms in the hope of applying for an exemption from paying Belgian tax as a non-resident buy cannot understand them. Does anyone know of a Belgian tax assessor who can help me with this, although to be honest I think it might be easier to just opt out of the Wise 'cashback' system, having already had some skirmishes with the Hacienda in the past which took years to sort out.

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Posted: Thu Aug 17, 2023 3:24pm

Darro

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Posted: Thu Aug 17, 2023 3:24pm

Your gross worldwide income is declarable for tax.

Tax paid or withheld at source is of no interest to the Spanish tax man and is for you to try and reclaim.

I looked at the Wise scheme just yesterday and quickly came to the conclusion that based on the small amounts of money that sit in my account for more than a couple of days it's just not worth the bother.

To make it in any way worthwhile you'd need to be holding significant amounts in the account which is something I personally would not feel comfortable with.

Posted: Fri Aug 18, 2023 9:48am

Marcbernard

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Posted: Fri Aug 18, 2023 9:48am

I too enjoy the "cash back" from Wise. I have looked at the Double tax agreement between Spain and Belgium, and unless I have misread the appropriate paragraph my belief is that there is similarity between this and the Spanish-UK DTA. Thus it indicates that tax is only levied on the "interest" within Belgium, and that the rate of such tax shall not exceed 10%. I am prepared to wait for the year's end to discover how Wise handles this, and am currently prepared to argue the toss with them. I feel that to discuss the situation with the Belgian authorities wouldn't be fruitful.