People fiddling Spanish tax system

Hi Alexandra

I sense your emotion and frustration in your post. Often things are not as simple or black and white as they first appear. Please do not mistake my comment as my disbelief in your comment.

As for what we do? Personally, I would not do anything. This is likely because I live by my own mantra whereby I do not take satisfaction in other peoples misfortune and I prefer not to wish ill upon others. What goes around and all that.

Someone pointed out to me some time ago, when I was frustrated about an individual, that the other person doesn't even know I am annoyed, frustrated or whatever... so why stress about it!

I am not sure my comments will help, I am definitely not trying to fuel your anger. 

Hope it helps :o)

As Will says, there's no point fretting about it. The only thing you can do is make an online denuncia on the Agencia Tributaria website, but even that is unlikely to result in action being taken.

Is every one trying to say they have never paid for a we job getting done cash in hand painting, getting a new socket put in,  plastering  in spain or uk or got paid for doing a homer as they say iv worked all my life paid my taxes and still paying them but I will use people for doing homers I.e mates rates u all trying to say u have never done this 

 Big difference between having little jobs done I guess and running a business dwelling on workers misery paid cash no health cover no pension.Disgraceful. I know it must also happen in uk.But funny inuf seems to be the norm here.So for honest people looking for a legal job I guess best to turn to spanish owned businesses as they do obey the law most of time.They do know what they risk if they get caught.When it comes to reporting those fiddlers no need to waste time to do it online.They are proper forms you can download and send to relevant Spanish authorities.All you have to do is identify yourself that is if you are willing to give your details .I can assure you that way INSPECTION DEL TRABAJO will come down on them like a ton of bricks.So yes something can be done.

Thankyou Ray.

This will always be the case, especially until the system changes. Most bars and restaurants (unless your in a prime location with year round trade), make most of their money during the busy summer period, so typically a 3/4 month window to cover their overheads for the year. The market is saturated with that type of business so this means everyone is competing to get the punters in to cover their costs. That 3/4 month window is also the maximum amount of time any individual will be employed for, legal or not. The ones who stick by the rules obviously pay the social etc on behalf of the employee which we all know can be a substantial cost to the employer. Others don't pay it or put their employees on a minimum contract whilst they are expected to work 40+ hours per week. Not saying that is right, but you could argue they're trying to stay competitive by cutting corners.

Now when the summer ends, the majority of people that were employed get bumped off until next year, as there is not enough trade coming in to keep them on. This obviously means that those who live here all year round, who still have bills to pay, are at a loss, and have to make up the income by other means i.e cash in hand jobs. Some decide to go down the legal route to self employment, but having looked into this myself (by no means up to date or a expert on the matter), you have to have a substantial amount of savings or money behind you in order to get off the ground, as you have to pay (i think) 300e per month autonomo, whether you are bringing any money in or not. It's easy to see this is another problem.

The biggest issue here, and not necessarily regarding tax avoidance, is the lack of jobs for the amount of people here seeking work..

Roll on Brexit then.

Well said Ray

Ah ok, so overnight Spain will become an incredibly efficient administration machine? I doubt it, Spain will just continue to move at its normal pace and all the people who have dodged the system will continue to do so. These people are persona non gratis and have cleverly avoided detection for years, by not raising their heads over the parapet. So long as they don’t travel outside of Spain, keep on the right side of the law and keep quiet about their actual situation, they will just carry on as before. They get paid cash in hand and don’t have bank accounts, they gamble with their health using the pharmacies as walk in surgeries and pay cash for private dental care, their landlords happily take rent without disclosing their tenants and most likely also have unlicensed properties. Will probably take at least 10 Spanish years to winkle them out. No point getting stressed out about it.