Leaving spain

Information and questions about the Law in Spain and Andalucia.
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marios
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Leaving spain

Postby marios » Tue May 26, 2020 12:02 pm

I am leaving Spain to stay in UK house hunting around 1st July and staying in a relatives house and informing HMRC of temporary address and for tax purposes, my wife will be staying till we exchange then I will be going back to sign probably around mid August for 1 or 2 days, will I have to submit a tax return to declare income as I would be in Spain just over 183 days but bearing in mind I was out of Spain from Jan 1st till Jan 21st, will this then not require a declaration thanks.

elusive
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Re: Leaving spain

Postby elusive » Tue May 26, 2020 12:31 pm

If you were out of the spain for more than 183 days then offically no. I guess is up to you to decide.

El Cid
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Re: Leaving spain

Postby El Cid » Tue May 26, 2020 12:34 pm

Also, if your wife remains in Spain your absence will be ignored, so unless you both leave before your 183 days, you will remain tax resident for the whole of 2020.

Sid

Miro
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Re: Leaving spain

Postby Miro » Tue May 26, 2020 12:48 pm

I think (just my opinion, don't quote me!) that if you want to ensure that you can safely avoid submitting a tax return for 2020, all you need to do is declare yourself (and your wife) to be tax resident in the UK by June 30th, i.e. by notifying HMRC of your UK address. The authorities are probably unlikely to check the exact number of days you were physically in Spain.
Of course, if you effectively declare yourselves UK residents for 2020, then your purchaser will have to retain 3% from the sale as you will officially be non-resident sellers in Spain. This is actually the choice we made, (easier for us because we did physically & permanently leave in June) because we wanted to avoid having to pay tax in Spain for the year we left. We were able to reclaim the 3% despite showing a capital gain on paper, because we were able to claim that the property we sold in Spain had in fact been our principle residence, and that we had re-invested the proceeds in our new principle residence in another EU country within the specified time (therby exempting us from CGT).
Hope this helps.
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marios
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Location: Nerja

Re: Leaving spain

Postby marios » Tue May 26, 2020 2:01 pm

Cheers guys that's a lot clearer now thanks.


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