Tax residency split year, my accountant got it wrong twice
standard gestores are for autonomo filings and cars. you need a proper international tax lawyer for dnv issues. i use a firm in marbella.
the tie breaker rules take years to settle if hacienda opens an investigation. better to just pay and reclaim from hmrc.
is this true even if i am on beckham law? i thought that changed the residency rules for the first few years.
welcome to spain. the left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing. uge says one thing and hacienda says another.
this is exactly why i waited until january 2nd to move. the split year treatment in spain is a myth, they either want it all or nothing.
actually the uk spain treaty has tie breaker rules for this. if you still had a house in the uk during those months you might win.
dont listen to the doomers. just apply for the certificate of residence in january and use that to stop your uk tax. i did it fine.
I had a similar issue when I moved to Valencia. The truth is that many gestores just look at the 183 day rule because it's the easiest to explain. They ignore the center of vital interests section which includes your spouse and kids. You definitely need to look into a big 4 firm or a specialized DNV lawyer. It will cost more but it's cheaper than paying 45 percent on your London salary twice.
which firm in marbella? i am in a similar spot with my us income.
hey i am moving to malaga next month. should i leave my wife in the uk until january to avoid this? sounds terrifying.
The family rule is the biggest trap in the Spanish tax system. Most local gestores are used to handling simple car transfers or basic payroll. They don't deal with the nuances of tax treaties often. Since your family is in Malaga with you, Hacienda assumes you are a resident from day one. You should look into the Tie-Breaker rules in the UK-Spain tax treaty to see if you can argue your center of vital interests was still London until the move date.
The tie-breaker sounds good on paper but Hacienda has been winning these cases lately. If the kids are in school in Malaga, they consider that the final word on where your life is. It's a nightmare to fight them.
The 183 day rule is only one of three ways they can grab you. Family is the second. Economic interest is the third. If your wife and kids are in Malaga, you are a resident in their eyes. Period. No way around it. Check out a company called Entre Trámites, they specialize in DNV and might know how to handle the London income overlap. Stop talking to that first gestor immediately.
beckham law makes you a non resident for tax rates but you are still a resident for the filing obligation. it is confusing.
Im surprised your lawyer in Madrid didn't offer to take over the case. Most of the time they love cleaning up these messes. Just watch out because some lawyers will promise you a refund from HMRC that takes three years to actually arrive. You'll be out of pocket in the meantime. Did you actually get your residency certificate for 2024 yet?
Getting that certificate is the hardest part. Hacienda often refuses to issue them for the first year if you arrived late in the year. It's a catch-22 situation.
Did you apply for Beckham Law? If you did it within the six month window from your registration date, your overseas income from before the move might stay exempt. But if you didn't apply because your gestor said you weren't a resident yet, you might have missed the deadline entirely. This is why getting a bad gestor is so dangerous for DNV holders.
Even with Beckham Law you still have to file the 151 form correctly. A lot of people think it solves everything but the timing of when you become a tax resident still matters for that first year.
The 6 month deadline is non-negotiable. If the gestor told him to wait until 2025 he might be totally screwed for the special regime.
i think your gestor is actually right. if you weren't here for 183 days they cant prove you were a resident unless they track your phone.
it is called the center of vital interests. if your kids are in school here, you are a resident. period. day count doesnt matter.
I moved from London to Malaga in September and my lawyer was very clear that the kids being here triggered residency immediately. You can usually recover the UK tax through the double taxation treaty but it's a slow process. You have to prove to HMRC that you were a resident of Spain for that period. Get a certificate of residency from Hacienda as soon as possible.
This happened to a friend of mine in Marbella. He ended up paying an international firm in Madrid to fix it. The local Malaga guys are great for local stuff but they aren't equipped for cross-border income and DNV specifics. Are you planning to stay long term? If so, just bite the bullet and pay a specialist now before Hacienda sends a notification. Once they open an investigation you can't make voluntary corrections.
the 183 day rule is the primary test. the family tie is secondary. you should be able to argue it if you kept a home in london.
i had this happen in 2023. it took fourteen months to get the refund from the uk after providing the spanish certificate of residency.
did you have to get the certificate translated and notarized or just the digital copy from aeat?
the problem is the op already paid the uk. now he owes spain. the overlap is where the pain is.
they dont need to track your phone if your kids are registered at the local school and you have a rental contract. that is public data.
yes. if you can manage the distance it saves you ten thousand euros in headaches easily.
hacienda treats the family tie as equal to the day count. check the recent supreme court rulings. the op is in trouble.
most of the ones in centro are overwhelmed with dnv applications right now. try looking in málaga east or even rincón.
anyone know a good gestor in malaga centro who speaks english? mine just stopped answering my emails.