Are Spanish self employed / autonomos overtaxed?

As a British accountant operating in Spain I sometimes feel the need to defend the Spanish tax system against accusations of (a) unfairness and (b) expensiveness.

At times that is a bit like trying to defend a war criminal or the English back four's performance in that World Cup defeat to Germany - because it is indefensible. Mostly though it is the Social Security system that is the real villain not income tax. There are two main problems with social security in Spain:

autonomos (Spanish self-employed) have to pay a minimum of 250€ before they can legally operate and this does not go down even if they earn a big fat €0 during any given period. A big disincentive that I have talked about before on this blog (Spain won't recover without encouraging its autonomos). But there is at least some leeway - see this article lower rates of Spanish social security in our Autonomo guide.

Also employers have to pay a whopping 30% or so in NI contributions making it ludicrously expensive and risky to hire anybody.

At least you get something for social security - health and pension rights. But what about Spanish income tax? When self-employed clients or small businesses start rolling their eyes at all the tax they must pay on top of those nasty social security contributions, I have to remind them of a few points:

- the contributions themselves are set against the self-employed's taxable income (thus reducing the effective cost of social security by up to 43%)

- the UK's top rate is now higher than Spain's (50% vs 43%)

- Spain's allowances are more generous (see Spanish tax rates)

- there is more scope to create tax efficiencies in Spain. Say no more.

Part of the resentment about autonomo tax comes from a misunderstanding of retenciones and the quarterly income tax that the self-employed have to pay. Without going into all the details, besides social security, autonomos must pay income tax every quarter and (sometimes) suffer a sort of PAYE on their invoices, where the customer deducts up to 15% and pays it to the tax office. But both of these types of tax are kinds of advanced income tax and the autonomo gets credit for them when they do their tax returns. Retenciones are offset against the quarterly tax bill and that in turn is credited against any tax payable when the annual Renta tax return is due. Quite often this can mean a tax rebate to the self-employed taxpayer.

That's enough defending the taxman. I can't keep it up for long.

Avoiding income tax in Spain - part 1

Part 1 - why?

Foreigners in Spain are often very keen to avoid local taxes wherever possible and indeed to keep out of the system in its entirety if they can help it. This may partly be because tax avoidance by the locals is a national sport and also because everyone seems to get away with it. It's not often you hear about the law catching up with anyone.

Also there may be some double standards operating: perhaps people who paid taxes meticulously in their home country do so reluctantly in their adopted country because they don't see themselves as part of the society being financed by those taxes. At some level they are still on holiday in Spain and don't feel the need to become full citizens, for example by signing up for Spanish social security.

Of course the main reason, as ever in matters of human motivation, comes down to opportunity and thus temptation. In your home country you cannot help but become enmeshed in the state system and avoidance opportunities are few (unless you are an MP with homes to flip). By moving states, EU or otherwise, the chance to cut all ties and start over again often brings an opportunity. It's down to you to put yourself in the system and start paying and declaring. For some people it's like being a kid in the sweet shop when the owner has to go out the back to get something leaving the counter undefended. There is a massive invitation to stuff your pockets with confectionery and many succumb.

In future posts I will discuss some of the ways people try and avoid tax, whether as individuals or if they are starting a business in Spain, and the implications.

http://www.advoco.es/services/35-spanish-tax-advice.html