Chance of Early Retirement

[jogger]

Just another quick update to this old thread. At last the company have given me a firm date of when I will be leaving the job, it's June 10th so three months and three weeks. I really now can't wait all doubts about retiring have left me and we have started to organise. We managed to sell our house over here and have bought a flat which we are in until the move. We will then rent that out. I'm having a few medical checks to sort out any niggles before we go, I've already had a few and nothing serious but I am into that sort of thing. Joined the gym in an effort to get fit and remain that way as much as I can for retirement. We are over in June / July for a month looking to buy a townhouse. This year we will be back and forward and eventually for tax reasons not officially move until Jan 2017 so we don't have to register for tax until June 2018 and tax will be paid in the UK prior to that. All exciting stuff and it is taken longer than I thought but at least it is now happening. Thanks for all advice so far this forum has been very valuable.

[IreneD]

I'm pleased it's finally happening for you, Roy. My OH (aged 72!) recently got his bike shipped over and I am very proud of him, he cycles some serious hills up here! Not down the mountain (getting up again would be beyond him lol) but he cycles to nearby villages. Also he cycles the coast roads, there are excellent cycle paths.

If you find yourselves in our area and need any help or advice, let us know.

[jogger]

Hi Irene thanks that would be nice to have a chat, we could maybe meet you and your OH in June for a coffee, drink and a chat. I am always afraid to impose as I know a lot of people enjoy their privacy, we are very much like that so would understand if you couldn't meet up but local info would be really useful.

Canillas De Aceituno is one of the villages on our list, I have a weather app with a list of towns in the area and have been checking and comparing temps ........so I know it's cooler there than say the coast in the winter.

[El Cid]

This year we will be back and forward and eventually for tax reasons not officially move until Jan 2017 so we don't have to register for tax until June 2018 and tax will be paid in the UK prior to that.

Remember that under the circumstances you mention, you will be tax resident in Spain for the whole of 2017. Yes, you will not have to pay the tax for 2017 until June 2018, but you will have to pay it. You can deduct the UK tax from the Spanish tax, but it is better to get registered on the Spanish system as soon as possible. You can then usually get HMRC to allow your pensions to be paid gross in the UK from the date you leave the UK. Note that Spanish tax is generally quite a bit more than UK tax so even if you deduct the UK tax there may be excess to pay. Also, if you are planning to take a lump sum from a pension or insurance, make sure you do it before January 2017 or you will pay Spanish tax on it.

You could come to live in Spain any time after June 2016 and still not be tax resident until 2017. If you play your cards right, you might even get a UK rebate on some of your 2016 tax. There is a well established procedure to inform both HMRC and Hacienda what you are doing. The fundament difference between the two systems is that the UK allows split tax years, but in Spain you are tax resident for the whole of the tax year that you become tax resident.

Sid

[IreneD]

Yes, happy to meet up, Roy - hopefully see you in June!

[jogger]

This year we will be back and forward and eventually for tax reasons not officially move until Jan 2017 so we don't have to register for tax until June 2018 and tax will be paid in the UK prior to that.

Remember that under the circumstances you mention, you will be tax resident in Spain for the whole of 2017. Yes, you will not have to pay the tax for 2017 until June 2018, but you will have to pay it. You can deduct the UK tax from the Spanish tax, but it is better to get registered on the Spanish system as soon as possible. You can then usually get HMRC to allow your pensions to be paid gross in the UK from the date you leave the UK. Note that Spanish tax is generally quite a bit more than UK tax so even if you deduct the UK tax there may be excess to pay. Also, if you are planning to take a lump sum from a pension or insurance, make sure you do it before January 2017 or you will pay Spanish tax on it.

You could come to live in Spain any time after June 2016 and still not be tax resident until 2017. If you play your cards right, you might even get a UK rebate on some of your 2016 tax. There is a well established procedure to inform both HMRC and Hacienda what you are doing. The fundament difference between the two systems is that the UK allows split tax years, but in Spain you are tax resident for the whole of the tax year that you become tax resident.

Sid

Thanks Sid
Yes, I will be getting a Voluntary Severance payment and a pension lump sum in June coming. The pension lump sum is tax free here as you know and I will be paying tax on the VS over £30k The main reason we are staying here until Jan 2017 is to have clear water between the payment and tax residency. So in 2018 when I do my tax form I'll be expecting to pay tax on my rental income and the company pension. Also it will give our grown up daughter time to acclimatise to our move.

[jogger]

Yes, happy to meet up, Roy - hopefully see you in June!

That's great, thanks Irene..

[jogger]

Well I am happy to announce I retired yesterday and no longer will be doing any form of paid work. At the end of the month we head over for the most of July and will be doing some serious house hunting. I will be looking at the timing as they say the pound will drop for a while if we brexit, which of course I hope we don't. It won't change things we will still move asap..........

[fyfin]

Just reading back through some of the postings, it's amazing how much time has passed since the first one. I also spotted something in one of your posts which I hadn't noticed before regarding NI which strangely enough is where I originated from (Co Tyrone) but left when I was 21 to live in Suffolk for nearly 40 years. In our little town here we have a few couples from the same neck of the woods who have holiday homes and one couple who also live here.
For us, things have moved on again as we have now sold our property in Suffolk and moved about one kilometer to a villa with a pool. We love it and of course we are still basically in the town and have made lots of friends. We have much more of a social life here than we ever did in Suffolk but, of course, work gets in the way and now we are retired we have more time on our hands, although we often say how quickly time passes and you're never quite sure what day it is.
It's so easy to get involved in so many different activities that sometimes yo have to decline invitations e.g. we have a lawn bowling club within waking distance and having had a trial we could easily have joined but with everything else we gave it a miss. The way to make friends, for sure, is to join in, even if it's only line dancing (my wife's passion), jamming (we play guitars, harmonicas, banjo and nor Jan has got a violin and doing reasonably well with it), just having a coffee and talking to the people at the next table. You need to make the effort as there are people here who you seldom see in the town although they live 5 minutes away and there are others who you will see and greet practically every day.
One thing I will mention which may be relevant, if you are intending to sell your house in the UK at some point, you need to be aware that there could be a Spanish capital gains tax issue and they don't seem to have the same allowances as the UK.
Anyway, it looks like your life is about to change and I hope you enjoy as much as we still do - as for Brexit, better not mention that on this thread, you'll find plenty of comments elsewhere on the forum! lol

Steve

[jogger]

Thanks Steve, that was a really informative post. We were just talking last night about holding on to our place here but in the long term it might be the case were we decide we have no ties over here, can manage well enough in the Spanish system and decide to get rid of it but that would be a long way down the road. We are still quite open about areas even though Axarquia is top of the list, we will be visiting relations when we're over who have just bought a place in the Hondon Valley? We also liked the Cadiz area, so we will eventually decide and just do it.

Yes I was brought up in Belfast but left there when I was 19 as soon as I could really and that was nearly 39 years ago. I've been in Tyrone on many an occasion.

We will put the effort in to make friends, it's something we haven't excelled at over here but I don't want to grow old lonely , that wouldn't be fun. The intention is to get in a bit of cycling , not that I do much now so would need to vastly improve on that, I was a London commuter cyclist and we like walking, so hopefully we won't get bored, we're just really looking forward to the new chapter now. Next month will be a test spending a month inland in a house with no air con but has a pool.

Anyway off out for a walk along the Chichester canal, thanks again for the response.

Roy

[Wicksey]

Like Fyfin we also lived in Suffolk but with us both working full time I really only had work-related friends and went out with 'the girls' after work in the evening for a meal or to go to the theatre. Nothing wrong with work friends (some of whom I still meet up with when I am back in the UK) but my OH wasn't involved in my social life so we didn't get to know many people as a couple.

Once we moved abroad and stopped working then we do just about everything together (apart from my hobby of dancing which unfortunately my OH has no interest in at all ) However, as Fyfin says, there are many clubs and associations you can join, or go on day trips out, or volunteer work to do, you certainly have much more time and chance to have a better social life when you were at work all the time.

I do miss the theatre which I did go to quite a lot with my girlfriends after work but apart from that, overall, after 16 years away I still prefer our life abroad.

Happy house hunting

[jogger]

Just another update, at long last we have found a place, situated in a little hamlet less than ten minutes drive to Periana. It is in a very Spanish little area so the Spanish lessons will definitely have to up a pace. It suits our needs, just 1km to a small village with shops and a couple of bars. The sale is going through at the minute and we will move in early next year (for a number of reasons). Let's hope it all goes through smoothly.

[fyfin]

Well done, we have only just moved from an apartment in the centre of our town to a villa about 1 kilometer outside the town on a hill. Already we find that we are socialising as much as we did before. It was so easy to just walk out the door and within 4 minutes we could reach every bar or cafe in town. The beauty of that was that the chances were that you would meet someone you knew , stop for a coffee and while away an hour or two and it was all unplanned.
Living a bit outside it takes longer to get into town and so we tend to take the car so we go less often. If we had moved up her right at the start I'm convinced we would not have made as many friends as we have already.
Of course it depends what you want to do and we certainly don't regret moving, we have more room and a pool and a garden to keep me busy (as if I needed to be kept busy lol) but there are advantages and disadvantages to being slightly out of town.

[mountainlass]

Well done, I too looked through this post, and when I first posted we were just starting out.

We have now lived here for two and a half years, and it has been a great success, not always easy, nothing ever is, but definitely worth it

Best wishes to you

[jogger]

Well all done and dusted. the house near Periana didn't work out after being advised by our lawyer, we ended up buying a house in Casares pueblo, an area we hardly looked at as we focused for years in and around Axarquia. We absolutely love the house, village and proximity to the beach. It just seems to tick all the boxes and the sale process was painless. next will be to move over permanently, this will be done by the end of the year and we are keeping a property in Chichester as income and as something for our daughter if she needs it. Thanks for all the advice given over the years.

Roy

[Wicksey]

Well done ... glad that it has all turned out OK in the end! Hope you have many happy years here!

[olive]

Result.

[fyfin]

Glad it worked out. Looks a bit hilly though but very pretty.