Tax resident or not ?

[Manchesteral]

Ok, this is not strictly speaking Spain but Gran Canaria, I have not checked up on this formally or checked with a lawyer yet, but I will, in the meantime I'd be grateful for some unofficial observations from the forum.
As some of you may know I've been banging on for some time now about spending a large part of the winter in Gran Canaria, well I'm here now and have the following query.
If I pay the rent, all year round (I've been offered a very good long term deal) on an apartment but I only stay there for the officially allowed time (185 days) ?? am I considered tax resident or not, I plan and will be able to prove that I'm in the U K for the rest of the time, any thoughts ?

[Wicksey]

Is that any different to owning a property but not living there full time?

[El Cid]

Just because you choose to sign a long term rental makes no difference to your tax status. So long as you do not exceed 183 days (not necessarily continuous) in any one calendar year you will not be tax resident.

Sid

[Manchesteral]

Thanks for the input Sid, I was thinking that's the case !

[Manchesteral]

Is that any different to owning a property but not living there full time?

that´s what I was wondering Wicksey, but Sid has cleared that up for me, I guess the difference is in renting as opposed to owning, I guess !!

[El Cid]

Whether you own or rent makes no difference to your tax status.

Sid

[Gasman]

Tax status relates to your time physically present in the country - even if you spread your visits around the year, the total number of days needs to be less than the 185 days.
Just a note to the folks already in mainland spain - the canaries ARE part of spain ... Manchesteral is talking about spending the rest of his year in the UK, so he will be tax resident in the UK.
Should Manchesteral decide to move more permanently to the Canaries, and indeed become tax-resident there spending more than 185 days, he may need to be wary of UK regulations regarding tax-residency in the UK - it seems to be more difficult to extract yourself from the UK tax these days - severing all ties etc.

[El Cid]

If you spend more than 183 days in Spain, that will take precedence over the 90 day UK rules. Yes, you will need to convince HMRC that you are paying tax in Spain, but that is not difficult. Severing all ties is not necessary - that only applies to changing your domicile, which is extremely difficult.

Sid

[Manchesteral]

Thanks for all the input, I've had an initial briefing by a neighbour of mine who has been doing exactly what I plan to do for some years and he's basically telling me the same as you lot, the only real concern I had was wether or not the authorities would consider me as a permanent resident because I'm renting full time, thanks again, all of you.