Moving to Spain

[Rabby]

Hello All, I'm looking for some wise advise please. Me & the Mrs are selling up in the UK & hope to move out to Fuengirola early next year. I'm hoping to do a bit of cheffing & the wife waitressing, can anyone tell me what papers/permits we'll need & what the score is as far as tax, national insurance & pension goes? as we don't want to work more than 25-30 hrs a week.
We will be renting when we come out. What we want to do is bank the money we make from selling our house & use the interest to pay the rent. We are not sure of the best way to bank it, England?Spain? Has anyone any tips on the best way to do it?

Thanks
Rab

[hillybilly]

OK where to start. Most of your questions have been covered on here before, have a search back...
In the meantime, assuming you're UK citizens you don't need work permits. You will need residencia certificates (previously talked about ad infinitum) and NIE numbers (ditto). If you can obtain genuine employment, your employers will have to pay your social security contributions (and your tax will be deducted from your pay). Otherwise you'd be looking at self employment and paying your own. Any social security contributions you or your employer make here will be added to those you have previously made in other EU countries to eventually provide your pensions.
If your UK NI contributions are up to date you can get up to 2 yrs health cover in Spain via the E106 so get that sorted before you make the move.
If you end up working illegally here you may want to continue paying voluntary NI contributions in the UK to maintain your UK pension entitlements. And look at private health insurance here.
Interest rates in Spain are cr@p so probably best to accrue interest in the UK if you can but then you have the exchange rate to take into account...who knows where that's going between now and next year. Open an account with one of the currency dealing/exchange companies to avoid paying exhorbitant bank charges here for the privilege of them receiving your money.

[costakid]

if you are working in catering you will be expected to work 15 hour days with 1 day a week off. nobody does a 25 hour week in spain.

[Rabby]

Not necessary, we have worked abroad before, many people need good reliable staff to cover when they are not there. We don't need to work 50 hours a week,all we need is a job to cover day to day living as we have a nest egg of £100k. Need to know the best way of banking the money for the best return.

[Rabby]

cheers hillbilly that was helpful.

[MarkF]

Can't you rent the UK house out? Both housing markets are unpredictable right but if I would keep the UK house if poss. "Correction" is the buzzword but although I think that'll be applicable to the UK I can only see significant falls in Spain or long term stagnation.

I changed my mind late on and didn't sell, I kept and rent out the UK house and rent here, time will tell whether that was a good decision or not.

Good luck anyway!

[Julie]

If you want a near enough instant access, no strings, the icici bank are quite good at the moment, but you have to transfer 10k at a time, or write a email asking them to accept more into your account, all banks have to notify the tax man nowadays, when you bank or withdraw more than 10 k at a time. take a look at www.fool.co.uk
or www.thisismoney.co.uk

[Retro P]

25 hours a week will get you about 200 Euros per week brutto, after taxes etc about 160 euros, your rent is likely to be in excess of 350-400 per month (unless you live in a tent) you'll need to work twice that to get a decent standard of living in that field of work, sorry but true, your capital will soon get eaten away, be careful!

[Rabby]

Thanks for replies. The plan is to keep the capital invested in UK. In the mean time we'll also have a substantial amount to start us off when we first move to Spain to cover rent & utility bills. Once the interest comes from the capital, we'll use that each year to pay the rent. So the capital remains untouched. As the rent & bills are covered, we only need to work for daily living costs. Luckily we are both very low maintenance .
Just looking for the best way to avoid costly transfers when the interest comes off the capital each year & needs to go into our Spanish account. Under no illusions about rates of pay,don't need a life of luxury, just as long as we have a bite to eat with a glass of vino each evening, plenty of sunshine & good health.

[Wicksey]

We have kept our money in the UK as we get the best rate of interest there and I can manage it all on line. As Hillbilly said, you are at the mercy of the exchange rate, but I prefer UK building societies to those here. Some building societies do not charge to use their debit cards abroad, or to draw cash out of the machines here. You don't need to keep transferring money here, just use your card to pay for things or draw cash to pay into your account here to cover any standing orders.

[Retro P]

I have a Spanish bank account but use it only for paying local bills, utilities etc.
As you will be keeping your money in the UK why not get a visa card from your local bank and treat it as the only form of payment you need, your bills then can be paid from your UK account and that way you need a minimum amount of cash (as you said, just your day to day living expenses) I don't live in Spain but I own property there and thats the way I do it, an Amex is even better but a lot of Spanish owned companies won't take it, I usually use a a bit of cash that I bring with me and pay for my diesel, restaurant bills etc with my visa, works for me!

[katie]

Great question (same I wanted to ask but was scared of the replies ) Me n the other half are planning exactly what you are but just down the road in Benal. Got to sell the house first so we have some capital. Keep in touch n let us know how you get on. Good informative site

[La Raya]

If you are leaving money in the UK you might be interested in this:

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/cards/ ... rseas#best

Bob

[Emma-Louise]

A different story, if it is just your holiday home over here.......

Otherwise, have some respect, be legal and never ever moan about Eastern Europeans in the Uk when you are planning on coming over here and doing more or less the same..............think about it!

[Retro P]

[quote="Emma-Louise"]
when you are planning on coming over here and doing more or less the same

Stealing and begging??

[Emma-Louise]

I knew someone would take offence - I like getting a reaction!

Although joking aside, anyone who read that link and took offence are most probably that little bit ducking and diving the rules anyway!

ps. I have lived here for 8 fully legal years......