S1 form and prescription charges

[sheilap]

My husband became a pensioner in September this year.We took our forms to regester for health care here in Spain.We recieved a form back to use untill our cards came through.I went to the doctors to get a prescription for cholestrol tablets as my cholestrol is very high the medicine I took in the U.K is not available here in Spain so he prescribed another type,the thing is it is going to cost me around €30 a month as he said I have to pay 50% of all meds,1 of the tablets I take is €42.80 full price the other is around €30.
We have a small forces pension and now the State pension I thought I was to be the same as him as a dependant and that the costs of meds would not be this high,I was expecting to pay for my meds but it just seems a lot,it would be great if someone can reply as to their experiance in this

[Lyric]

I am my wife's dependant, she being the pensioner. I pay exactly the same as her i.e. 10% of the list price.

[gus-lopez]

It should be & also capped at 8€ month.

[sheilap]

thanks for the reply do you think we should wait for the cards to come through in the post or is there something we have not done.I read somewhere that we have to tell someone what our full income is but we have had no info on this.
could it be the tax office we have not registered with them as we have not declared any tax due as my husband gets his pension taxed in the U.K and as this is our only income did not see the need to contact the tax office here.
we have got our padrons pay our local taxes and bank charges and they all now we are resident here we have also had recidencia here in Spain for the last 5 years

[El Cid]

could it be the tax office we have not registered with them as we have not declared any tax due as my husband gets his pension taxed in the U.K and as this is our only income did not see the need to contact the tax office here.

You should be making a tax declaration in Spain even though your pension is taxed in the UK. Only government pensions should be taxed in the UK. Any other income, including the UK state pension is taxed in Spain.

It is in your interests to submit a tax declaration in Spain even if it results in no tax being due otherwise you will be treated as non residents and not get any of the special deals that tax residents do. You are also obliged to include your government pension in your declaration even though it is not taxed directly. This has often been ignored in the past but when the new tax treaty comes into force it will become compulsory.

[sheilap]

thanks for the reply El Cid as my husband did not think we had to apply to the tax office as he has a government forces pension and now state pension
his tax is combined with his forces pension and state pension on which he gets taxed on both in the UK
are you saying he will get taxed again here in Spain on his state pension
so is it we need to declare a nil return or do we declare his state pension and get taxed twice ((confussed))
when we find the tax office (we are sevila provence) do we then get back to the social security office and ask them to look at our situation regarding our heath care???

[El Cid]

thanks for the reply El Cid as my husband did not think we had to apply to the tax office as he has a government forces pension and now state pension
his tax is combined with his forces pension and state pension on which he gets taxed on both in the UK
are you saying he will get taxed again here in Spain on his state pension
so is it we need to declare a nil return or do we declare his state pension and get taxed twice ((confussed))
when we find the tax office (we are sevila provence) do we then get back to the social security office and ask them to look at our situation regarding our heath care???

You should ask HMRC to take the State pension out of the equation which should reduce the tax you pay in the UK. You then have to declare it in Spain although it will probably be below the tax threshold as you will get a full set of Spanish allowances against it.

This means that you will end up paying less tax than you are paying at the moment which has to be a good thing!

To achieve this is a little complicated. You apply to HMRC for Form FD9 on which you enter the details of any non government pension. This then goes to the Spanish tax authorities (Hacienda) and they stamp it and return it to HMRC in the UK who will then start paying your state pension gross and may also give you a tax rebate. If for some reason Hacienda do not wish to follow the FD9 procedure (which has happened before) then all you do is declare your state pension on your Spanish tax declaration which will effectively allow you to prove to HMRC that you are now being taxed in Spain (even if there is no tax to pay).

Getting back to the prescription charges, the system, as has been mentioned, is capped at €8 a month but that does depend on your income so unless you are in the tax system and declaring your income the system will not work.

As you can see it is very much in your interests to sort this out as you should end up with a quite substantial tax saving - about 20% of your state pension!

Sid

[Mowser]

Re non-payment of taxes, I saw this ...

THE SPANISH TAX AUTHORITY IS NOW TAKING UNPAID TAXES DIRECTLY FROM BANK ACCOUNTS.

In Tax Year 2013, Spanish Tax Authority is serving notifications to property owners in Spain warning them that there is no record about their filing of any tax return, whether they are considered to be Resident or Non-Resident for tax purposes.

Some owners of properties located in Spain have found seizures of their bank accounts due to taxes pending to be paid.
We advise you to check with your tax advisor if you are properly paying your Non-resident taxes or in the event that you are a fiscal resident in Spain, you should declare taxes in Spain for your worldwide income.

[El Cid]

I hope they are going to be a bit more efficient at this than my experience with Hacienda yesterday.

My wife had an apologetic letter from them thanking her for paying her two tax instalments but could she please send them a copy of her tax declaration as they had lost it!

Sid

[sheilap]

thanks for your help el cid I have a friend who can speak better Spanish than me I will ask if she could come with me to the Hacienda in Osuna so we can get our tax sorted also we are going to contact HMRC in the uk and ask for them to pay the state pension gross as my husband gets his state pension paid into our spanish account then the tax man here will be able to see how much is being paid in.

then when that is done I suppose we then go to the social security office and get them to change my entitlement to health care as being a dependant on a pensioner

[El Cid]

thanks for your help el cid I have a friend who can speak better Spanish than me I will ask if she could come with me to the Hacienda in Osuna so we can get our tax sorted also we are going to contact HMRC in the uk and ask for them to pay the state pension gross as my husband gets his state pension paid into our spanish account then the tax man here will be able to see how much is being paid in.

then when that is done I suppose we then go to the social security office and get them to change my entitlement to health care as being a dependant on a pensioner

Download this form and fill it in with details of your UK State pension and take it with you.

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/cnr/spain-individual.pdf

Hopefully they will stamp it and keep the Spanish copy. Send the English copy back to HMRC and they should arrange to amend your tax code to exclude the UK State pension.

You will need to submit a Spanish tax declaration for your income from the UK state pension during 2013 by the end of June next year. You can do this through a gestor or make an appointment at the tax office and they will submit your declaration for free - take your friend to translate for you..

Sid

[Mowser]

Do exactly as Sid says! Following his advice, Mrs mowser is saving around £108 per month.
Well done sid.

[sheilap]

wow sid you know how to make me happy this has been a bit of a headache for me thanks for the link ,will get on to it asap

I will give you an update as soon as we have been to the tax office

[elusive]

Re the form cid mentions about getting your pension paid tax free does the english version have to be stamped in spain aswell. is there anything you can do in the uk inregards to sending the form to hmrc before you leave the uk or does it all have to be done at the other end.

[El Cid]

You have to take the form to Hacienda. There are two forms, one in English and one in Spanish. Hacienda keep the Spanish one and stamps both. You send the stamped Engish form back to HMRC - at least that's how I did it but it was a long time ago!

Sid

[Miro]

You apply to HMRC for Form FD9 on which you enter the details of any non government pension. This then goes to the Spanish tax authorities (Hacienda) and they stamp it and return it to HMRC in the UK who will then start paying your state pension gross
Sid

Please excuse my utter ignorance - but under normal circumstances I assumed the UK state pension is paid gross anyway? If you have no other source of income, it would surely fall below the tax allowances, and if you do have other income, I thought your tax code reflects your state pension and any tax due on it is actually deducted from your other sources. Maybe I've got this completely wrong. But how do actually tell if any tax is being deducted from your state pension - they don't send any kind of statement showing how your (net) payment is arrived at. Or do they? Either way, since I'm tax resident in Spain and HMRC know this, by virtue of an FD9 submitted a couple of years ago for a private pension (my UK tax code is NT) is it safe to assume my state pension is in fact being paid gross?

[elusive]

Thanks cid. im looking at the form now and its asking for the date you became resident in spain for tax purposes. ie 6 months after your first arrived? so in that sense,maybe im reading it wrong ad is normally the case! but doesnt that mean you cant take the form to the tax office in spain and claim your pension etc free of uk tax until you have been in spain for at least six months??

[rafiki]

I didn't bother sending my FD9 to the Hacienda. My tax accountant got me a certificate of fiscal residency, I attached it to the FD9 and sent it direct to HMRC. It was accepted immediately without question.

[El Cid]

I didn't bother sending my FD9 to the Hacienda. My tax accountant got me a certificate of fiscal residency, I attached it to the FD9 and sent it direct to HMRC. It was accepted immediately without question.

The problem with that is that Hacienda may not give you that certificate until you have submitted your first tax declaration . it will depend on the individual office.

Sid

[El Cid]

Thanks cid. im looking at the form now and its asking for the date you became resident in spain for tax purposes. ie 6 months after your first arrived? so in that sense,maybe im reading it wrong ad is normally the case! but doesnt that mean you cant take the form to the tax office in spain and claim your pension etc free of uk tax until you have been in spain for at least six months??

You become You become tax resident after you have spent a total of 183 days (not necessarily consecutive) in Spain. Once you get to this point you are deemed tax resident for the whole of the tax year.

It could be a little complicated if you arrive in Spain in July because you won't become tax resident until the following year.

HMRC are not going to pay you gross until you are actually tax resident so under these circumstance wait until next year and give Jan 1st as date of tax residencSid