Relocation to Spain Experience

[Martynt74]

I guess that was the companies mission statement. That's is how I read it.
I am thinking about doing a c1, keep my options open. I find the UK to stressful.
I been quietly reading this post to get a sense of issues regarding moving.

Having gone through it I would gladly do it all again and we certainly haven’t made it easy for ourselves.

I’m sure we could’ve had our own house and all paperwork sorted by now if I’d wanted to just pay someone and we were less fussy with house requirements.

If you ever have any specific questions just give me a shout.

 

[Martynt74]

The quiet life is funny.

As mentioned previously. Going to my parents place which is touristy has been awful.
Then you end up on a quiet road today as we were and got stuck behind a single slow driver and got annoyed with them as it’s just so unusual to have anything inconvenience you!

Think I offended the neighbour last week as i mentioned how big a plot we’d bought and when he asked why I said I didn’t want neighbours. He’s been less chatty since!

 

[Martynt74]

I hope it really works for you. I hope one day I'll be in that position.

Thanks. 100% it will (assuming I don’t get deported for still not having my residency!)

Once we get into the new rental things will be loads better too. We’ll know we’re then settled right up to moving into our house, and also it’ll be mostly empty as the owners are moving out so won’t be trying to fit out stuff around the house owners’ stuff. Can start buying furniture too as there’s loads of space.

 

[Martynt74]

Ah having the cash would make a big difference. Especially if looking for anything more remote.

I’ve certainly been fortunate to have a Spanish subsidiary for me to transfer to, however there’s a lot of UK companies allowing people to work remote now. As you say that opens up the DNV. You’d probably keep your SIPP benefits there too and get the UK top up.

That’s one thing I need to sort out. There’s no tax benefits to paying into a private pension here. I’ll have enough years contributions for a full Spanish pension which should be a decent amount as it’s scaled here where you get a higher pension the more you earn.
I’m likely just going to plough money into Investments and have more flexibility in drawing it down rather than being tied to specific ages.

As you say DNV is 24% tax and gives resident rights. Assuming you’re a non EU citizen that’s likely the only option. Even with our Spanish subsidiary I think it would’ve been tricky without my wife being from the EU.
I do believe Portugal is meant to make things a little easier.

 

[Martynt74]

Ah see I’m poor so don’t have to worry about that!

If you’re resident i Spain then I don’t believe the wealth tax applies. It’s only for Non Residents but I could be wrong. You’d just be taxed as if it’s income.

Re state pension. There’s nothing to currently transfer. You just apply when at pension age and they liaise with the UK. Unsure what to do about my SIPP though. At the moment I’ve not looked into it.

 

[Martynt74]

ALso screw the Spanish language!

Just been to the garage to ask when they can change 4 tyres for me , The scene played out like this and basically made me look stupid

Me - Can you change 4 tyres, i already have the new tyres
Mechanic - Si, en Martes (Yes on Tuesday),
Me - Gracias, en la manana? (Thanks, in the morning?)
Mechanic - No, manana es Sabado. Es Martes (No, tomorrow is Saturday. I said Tuesday)
Me - Si, En Martes por la Manana (Yes, on Tuesday, in the morning?)

He then proceeded to point at the calendar and point out that he meant Tuesday. At this point i gave up and will just drop it off at 8am when they open on Tuesday! I guess i could've asked "what time on Tuesday", but it's where i'm still not quite that confident so changing what i'm thinking of asking generally leaves me tongue tied!

The main issue being that "Manana" technically means Morning, but no-one seems to use it as such, it's more commonly used for tomorrow. Hence everyone saying Manana when asked to do anything.

Also it seems weird not typing with the squiggly bit over the N!

 

[Martynt74]

Haha maybe, I think i only switched to that because i was trying to make it clear i was talking about Tuesday!

 

[Martynt74]

Yeah but you expect stupidity from the Welsh


Woohoo i've officially been granted the Special Tax Regime. Slowly getting to grips with these Spanish forms!

 

[Martynt74]

Negative again!

Since i'm working, the bank are insisting on my residency card for the mortgage study. Given i don't have one and currently have no idea when this might be it could be quite a sticking point!

Currently have 2 conversations going with different people who specialise in these things to see if they can be more pro-active than the current person dealing with it who i have little faith in. At this point, if someone charged me a grand and assured me it'd be sorted in a week i'd gladly pay it!

Last night realised my passport expires in July. Wasn't planning on travelling for a while but have applied for a replacement as some things suggest needing 4 months for the residency!


@rp2000 For internal flights. Do you need a passport or does it not matter much? Am heading your way in August for a gig and flying seems the cheapest/fastest method of travel.

 

[Martynt74]

Nice one. I assumed as such but wasn't too sure

 

[Martynt74]

Love the thread. It's very tempting to do something similar.
Do you not worry about what would happen if you lost your job? I can't imagine many UK companies would be willing to hire you while you live in Spain and pay you a UK wage. Or would they in your field? That's pretty much the main thing stopping me doing something like this.

100% I sometimes joke with my boss that I’m trapped there!

I think I could manage and would say I have good job security at my place and it’s big enough that there would be other jobs should anything ever happen to mine.

I’ve also chatted to a few companies around doing consultancy work (ERP software implementation) and most work in English so would hope I could get something in that field.

 

[Martynt74]

Relevant to this thread, sort of:

Spain to end 'golden visas' granting residency to investors who spend €500k on housing

PM Pedro Sánchez announces termination of scheme that has benefited 10,000 people since 2013

www.catalannews.com

I think this is what was called the "Beckham law" or something like that, which will soon come to an end. Probably was only used by high rollers, but I know we have a few of them in this thread


rp2000

Haha no, the Golden Visa was different. It just meant that spending €500k meant you automatically got a visa which allowed you to work.

I am 100% not qualified at that level

 

[Martynt74]

giving a visa to those investing in property does seem a flawed idea.

however letting people with large amounts of disposable income get a visa, as much as it seems "unfair" to me from an ethical POV does make sense.
Rich people spend a lot of money so help the local economy so are a benefit to the country they reside in.
Morally it sucks however as it just means rich people get to do what they want whilst everyone else is stuffed.

same as it ever was.

Yeah, it's a weird balancing act. You want to attract people who are going to boost the economy, and people at a level to drop €500k cash into a house are certainly going to be at that level.

On the flip side it massively ramps up house values for locals and prices them out.

 

[Martynt74]

No, it's an interesting point. There are various penalties for holiday homes where they're taxed as a "wealth tax" on non residents. Think it's around 3%. Similar to how Wales/Cornwall are trying to target second home owners with heavy council tax rates. Although the amount of

I do think that countries, especially Spain are trying to get around the 180 day rule. It's hindering the economy and is stopping people using their holiday homes, so then they don't come as often, and then new people don't want to buy, not UK people anyway. Still loads of buyers from other EU countries.

 

[Martynt74]

Private health insurance is also mandatory for most of these for a minimum period of 1 year, not sure about the GV or student visas. I think you can then transfer to Spanish health care

Yeah, still need Health Insurance for the GV. The other factor is there's a limit i believe on how long you can be out of Spain for. My friends parents have recently bought a house and applying for it, but unsure on the limitations behind it. Wouldn't have thought they'd have wanted insurance.
I believe after 12 months you can convert to the healthcare system, same as with the NLV (unsure about DNV)

It's not a wealth tax, it's a tax based on an assumed/equivalent rental value, regardless of whether or not the property is rented out or not. It's the same idea as additional council tax here, just a different way of skinning the same cat.

I don't think there's much they can do about the 180 day rule at the moment and not totally sure how much they want to anyway. By all accounts there are still plenty of people from other European countries buying properties so it's questionable about how much of a hit the economy is actually taking. Couple that with their wish to reduce pressure on house prices I can't really see them moving on it.

Yeah true. I think it varies by region (for who wants it), but as you say it's an EU rule. I guess if they really wanted it they'd create a new Visa with no limitations or relax existing rules, whereas they're actually tightening some of the restrictions.

 

[Martynt74]

Interesting information, please keep posting.
I just sent am email to a Portuguese and Spanish law firm that deal with these things.

I gave them a brief history including, multiple degrees. This includes my area of expertise, globally hot property at the moment.

I was hoping just my area of expertise would shoot me pass all the bureaucracy.

Problem is (at least in Spain) i'm not sure it helps, unless you can find an employer willing to go through all the hoops needed to hire you. As @dod mentioned, it's a bit like the US where they have to provide substantial evidence for why they can't hire an EU citizen. If you can find a company to do that ahead of time then great, but not sure a lawyer could help without the job offer.

Best entry point really is a Digital Nomad Visa. It locks in a low rate of tax, is pretty much a guaranteed visa (providing you meet the conditions), and allows you to retain a job in the UK. There could be some tax issues for the company though so that's the only issue. After 5 years you can then apply for citizenship.

 

[Martynt74]

Yeah makes sense. I don't profess to be an expert but if you ever have specific questions just give me a shout. You pick up a hell of a lot from the various facebook groups

 

[Martynt74]

lot of talk about that, but the practicality of working from abroad without any local office environment/colleagues for some social interaction would have been tough personally,
interacting with natives/multi-nationals at work, and some language baptism of fire, helps integration ..
not sure if you were in an office environment part time in the UK ?

(working from home seems a unique UK covid initiated obsession amongst gen z - seen several comedy parodies)

Very rarely. I was 100% office based pre-Covid. Then changed jobs mid Covid (June 2021) and so was home based to start with. Then as the UK office went back to a hybrid working i generally stayed at home apart from specific meetings. I work at a consolidating group level, and the UK office is just one entity within the group, so don't have much interaction with the personnel there other than maybe 1-2 people.
Most of my time is spent doing stuff in the background, or helping out the various entities spread over UK, Germany, Holland and North America so being in an office didn't offer much benefit.

If i'm honest i much prefer home working. I guess it helps my wife is also home based so there's interaction there during the day. It seems a horrible thing to say due to what some people went through, but Covid was one of the best things to ever happen to me! I'm not sure remote working would've kicked in and i'd still be in an office 5 days a week and still in the UK.

 

[Martynt74]

Big week, for spending at least. We went out at the weekend to check out kitchens, then i saw an outdoor furniture shop that looked cheap and suggested we head in. One thing we've not had in any rentals are comfy outdoor chairs where you can relax after work with a beer or just generally be properly comfortable. After forcing the wife to buy the cheapest Tectake garden furniture in the UK. I'd promised her we'd buy decent stuff here and i wouldn't be my usual cheap self.

Walked into the factory and appearances were deceiving. Everything i looked at was insane money. Like €5k for an outdoor sofa, and €850 for a sun lounger crazy! Lots of nice stuff though and we saw some reclining aluminum chairs for €500 each. Was a bit shocked at the womans reluctance to do a deal though when i started to suggest we buy a couple chairs, matching footstools, small table and then also add in an outdoor dining table. All i got was that if we spent around 5k she might be able to do 5% I walked out saying i wanted to just have a think, and thought she might try harder with no luck. Monday we went to another few places but didn't see anything we liked as much. However we did stumble upon a general furniture shop.

I hadn't realised my wife planned on us buying a bed straight away, but it turns out the lady in the rental is taking her main bed, and my wife doesn't fancy being stuck on a double that's potentially old and battered. I can't blame her. We found a bed frame and mattress we really liked. It had some cooling technology which is absolute witchcraft. The thing was noticeably cool to the touch compared to every other mattress in the store. No idea how it does it! I've also always wanted an Eames style chair and they had a replica at a decent price, and when buying together they gave a decent discount of just over 10%

Got home and my wife started checking reviews. It's a brand called Mimma and Google/Trust Pilot reviews aren't great. Although at the same time there are very few (only 3 on TP, and not many more on Facebook). I also saw the chair was advertised €100 cheaper on their website. I sent an email just to check the cancellation policy citing the bad reviews as a concern. However i got a couple of decent emails back from them doing their best to re-assure me. Also apologising for the pricing issue on the website but offering to refund me a further €100. I'm happy enough and it seems Spain doesn't have the review culture of the UK, so if there's only a handful of bad reviews for a store with ~30 outlets across Spain it can't be that bad!

Yesterday i placed an order for Starlink. We could get 1000mbs Fibre at the rental, but it's a €150 connection charge and €40 a month. Cheap enough, but given we need Starlink in our final home it made sense to just spend the money on that. Annoyingly i realised today that the router has no ethernet port and i've also ordered a few Ubiquiti bits so have added the ethernet adaptor from Starlink. I'm debating the elevated pole add on too, but €90 seems a lot for that!

Residency application is looking better. The new person i have dealing with it seems loads better and is pro-active. Just waiting on the newly apostiled marriage cert to reapply.

Also just dismissed the accountants for my wifes Autonomo submissions. They charged €62/mth which seems unnecessary for the amount of work involved. I'm gonna do it myself! I've done a fair bit of reading and from the submissions i've been sent from the accountants it's much easier than the UK tax returns. Also liking that i can stick Starlink and the Ubiquiti stuff through to reclaim VAT

 

[Martynt74]

Residency application is looking better. The new person i have dealing with it seems loads better and is pro-active. Just waiting on the newly apostiled marriage cert to reapply.

And submitted yesterday and i have the confirmation email of receipt stating a maximum 3 months to process the application.

I'm starting to question if the first company even submitted anything, as they claimed i should've received the above confirmation back in January when they submitted it, but i received nothing. Problem is actually proving that, and since it was only €130 i'm just going to write it off.