We are non residents and need to do our first Spanish tax return for the previous quarter.. So now! We have one holiday home in the Alpujarras - which is in Andalucia, 30 mins from the Costa Tropical.
Can anyone recommend a good accountant/tax advisor we could use? We would really appreciate some suggestions.
Our English accountant has a few clients with holiday homes in Spain. He told us that none of his clients pay tax in Spain - they just declare it on their English return once a year. We do have a Spanish accountant (through our solicitor) who has done one annual return for us - he also said that none of his clients with holiday lets submit these returns!!
We are a newly registered holiday let and do want to do things correctly. Our view is that it's only a matter of time before Spain's computer systems get linked up and catch tax dodgers!
Any Recommendations for a Good Accountant/Tax Advisor
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kevsboredagain
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I had the same kind of responses from accountants and even my lawyer when I started too. These people not declaring will get caught eventually and many will have their lives ruined by back taxes, interest and penalties.
I'm now with http://www.abacoadvisers.com/ Not cheap but fairly efficient. You would need to declare the income in Spain every quarter and yearly in the UK. There's also a yearly tax on the deemed rental income which is calculated for the days the property is empty.
I'm now with http://www.abacoadvisers.com/ Not cheap but fairly efficient. You would need to declare the income in Spain every quarter and yearly in the UK. There's also a yearly tax on the deemed rental income which is calculated for the days the property is empty.
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costa-brava
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AGAIN! AGAIN! AGAIN! At the 100% risk of becoming boring I say you all have to stop faffing around. Somebody who is non-resident needs to go IN PERSON to one of the many offices of AGENCIA TRIBUTARIA with a list of questions and post the answers here in LMH.
I cannot for the life of me understand why everybody is happy to wing it of the flippety opinion of somebody else who doesn't know either.
They won't bite you. They'll give you HONEST, CORRECT, UP-TO-DATE information.
Why? Why? Why is nobody willing to do this.
YOU MUST DECLARE EVERY 3 MONTHS even if you claim to be doing it in the UK. Look at the other posts here in LMH.
The notion that they will soon get into the bank accounts is crazy. THEY HAVE BEEN IN THE BANK ACCOUNTS FOR TWO YEARS.
I cannot for the life of me understand why everybody is happy to wing it of the flippety opinion of somebody else who doesn't know either.
They won't bite you. They'll give you HONEST, CORRECT, UP-TO-DATE information.
Why? Why? Why is nobody willing to do this.
YOU MUST DECLARE EVERY 3 MONTHS even if you claim to be doing it in the UK. Look at the other posts here in LMH.
The notion that they will soon get into the bank accounts is crazy. THEY HAVE BEEN IN THE BANK ACCOUNTS FOR TWO YEARS.
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kevsboredagain
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It must be the heat. I'm not sure why you're jumping up and down costabravarent.
What to do to file a tax return is not a huge mystery, even if it's a PITA and you can indeed go to the office, pick up the official stickers to put on the returns and do it yourself. However, when you're not resident in Spain, dealing with all these different departments can be problematic when something goes wrong and you don't live there.
I've now lost count of how many times I've had to get someone in Spain to sort out a bureaucratic problem for me. Therefore it makes sense to pay a little more and have a gestor or similar who can do it on your behalf.
The comments about bank accounts has lost me. All I know is that they share more and more info between countries now regarding tax and they can easily scour the internet for rental adverts. Why they catch so few is beyond me though.
I personally file a tax return in 3 countries and have experienced some of this sharing of information and know that banks are obliged to report certain things to the tax authorities. I used to write software which did things like that when I worked for a bank.
What to do to file a tax return is not a huge mystery, even if it's a PITA and you can indeed go to the office, pick up the official stickers to put on the returns and do it yourself. However, when you're not resident in Spain, dealing with all these different departments can be problematic when something goes wrong and you don't live there.
I've now lost count of how many times I've had to get someone in Spain to sort out a bureaucratic problem for me. Therefore it makes sense to pay a little more and have a gestor or similar who can do it on your behalf.
The comments about bank accounts has lost me. All I know is that they share more and more info between countries now regarding tax and they can easily scour the internet for rental adverts. Why they catch so few is beyond me though.
I personally file a tax return in 3 countries and have experienced some of this sharing of information and know that banks are obliged to report certain things to the tax authorities. I used to write software which did things like that when I worked for a bank.
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costa-brava
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jumping up and down
Sorry Kevsbored I'm jumping up and down again. Maybe I should change my nickname from costabravarent to jumpingupanddown.
But it was just a few days ago that someone was unclear about whether they should declare rentals in the quarter they are booked, in the quarter the guests arrive or in the quarter the money is in the shoebox. I can't remember if you contributed but the person asking the question must have been totally confused by the answers.
It's great to have a forum where people can air their opinions but some questions require concrete answers and I find that lots of posters are liberal with opinion but very short on concrete answers. My accountant says this and my gestor does that and my uncle Jimmy just keeps all the money and doesn't bother declaring anything, are not helpful answers.
FOR EXAMPLE. This question posed by VIV01 in this thread refers to Andalucia. The correct answer to her is that at the moment she can only legally rent if she has a licence. This licence only applies to rural properties. If it is in a larger town she cannot at the moment get a licence. If she rents without a licence the Andaluz authorities are likely to hit her with a fine that could be half of what she paid for the property.
This forum has been running for a long time but people are still terribly wary of giving factual answers.
I don't understand why. If you have the info, post it. If you know where to get it, post that.
From 30 years of living and paying taxes in Spain I say " go to the office involved and find out·. Then when you have the correct answers tell everybody about it.
Or does everybody prefer to live in a fuzzy ball of cloud?
The penalties for getting it wrong are vicious. So let's help each other more with real facts not vague opinions. Till that happens I'm going to keep jumping up and down. Besides it's good for keeping the weight in trim.
Have fun but stay on the right side of the law. They're coming to take you away. Ha Ha!
But it was just a few days ago that someone was unclear about whether they should declare rentals in the quarter they are booked, in the quarter the guests arrive or in the quarter the money is in the shoebox. I can't remember if you contributed but the person asking the question must have been totally confused by the answers.
It's great to have a forum where people can air their opinions but some questions require concrete answers and I find that lots of posters are liberal with opinion but very short on concrete answers. My accountant says this and my gestor does that and my uncle Jimmy just keeps all the money and doesn't bother declaring anything, are not helpful answers.
FOR EXAMPLE. This question posed by VIV01 in this thread refers to Andalucia. The correct answer to her is that at the moment she can only legally rent if she has a licence. This licence only applies to rural properties. If it is in a larger town she cannot at the moment get a licence. If she rents without a licence the Andaluz authorities are likely to hit her with a fine that could be half of what she paid for the property.
This forum has been running for a long time but people are still terribly wary of giving factual answers.
I don't understand why. If you have the info, post it. If you know where to get it, post that.
From 30 years of living and paying taxes in Spain I say " go to the office involved and find out·. Then when you have the correct answers tell everybody about it.
Or does everybody prefer to live in a fuzzy ball of cloud?
The penalties for getting it wrong are vicious. So let's help each other more with real facts not vague opinions. Till that happens I'm going to keep jumping up and down. Besides it's good for keeping the weight in trim.
Have fun but stay on the right side of the law. They're coming to take you away. Ha Ha!