Talk Quesada forum

Hi, I'm hoping one or two of the more knowledgeable forum members can help me out here:-

Quick background - my wife and I live in UK, both retired and hoping to move to Quesada/Guardamar area ASAP. Our house recently went on the market but we don't know how long it will take to sell or complete on and this is our biggest stumbling block
We fear that given current political situation in UK, a no-deal brexit on 31st Oct is now more likely.

We've recently heard that if we can arrive in Spain before Oct 31st and the UK does leave without a deal but we can show that we mean to reside in Spain permanently and have sufficient resources/income etc, then the Spanish Government will allow us to apply for residencia even if this process goes past the end of Oct.

My questions are:-

- Is this actually correct ?

- If it is, we would want to hit the deck running and start the process immediately so, can we use a 'temporary' address/rental agreement in Spain when applying, like a short term rental whilst we get organised when we arrive or would we need a 'long-term' rental address/rental agreement ?

- If it is not true, does anyone know a way that we could get around this, maybe by coming to spain for 4 or 5 weeks before the house sells, renting somewhere and starting the process whilst having not yet moved out of the UK ?, any ideas welcome...

- Can anyone recommend an English speaking Gestor or Solicitor local to Quesada that I could maybe contact to discuss this ?

If you managed to read this far... thanks for looking

Paul & June.

As far as we know......

The latest general election which saw PSOE returned (if they can sort out a coalition) was pretty good news for those of us already living here. We will have to change our status from EU citizen to non-EU citizen and get an ID card but the politicos have promised that will be pretty much a done thing. We will have until the end of the transition period (could be 20 months, and please notice the could) to get these new ID cards.
It has also been promised that anyone who is not currently a resident will be able to do so until UK officially leaves. However (always an however) it is taking some time to get things done. Even appointments to get an NIE number are taking some time and then there is the time it will take to get residency. All in all it could be 6 months to sort it all out.

There are people who are official residents in Spain but have rental contracts so you don't need to own property. You can sign on at the town hall by showing a rental contract and it doesn't have to be deeds. You would then need to ensure you have completed the fiscal requirements and declared yourself a Spanish taxpayer and registered with the tax office.

After UK leaves, those who are residents should find nothing different if the politicos are to be believed. This is being entered into Spanish law but does have the caveat that this will depend on the UK giving reciprocal rights to Spanish citizens living in UK (something that I think many EU countries are insisting on).

If not a resident before UK leaves then you can still apply but it becomes a bit more difficult. You have to have a higher income than a EU citizen, full healthcare which may or may not be provided by your home country. You have to apply in your home country so you can't come here for a month or so and then apply.
You can only come for a maximum period as yet undecided. Most can come for a period of 3 months and must then leave for the same period and come back again for another 3 months for a maximum of 6 months in one year. Citizens of some countries can stay for a period of 6 months but nothing is yet written down.

Again, this is as far as we know. So, yes, if you are definite about moving over then do so quickly. Apply for residency as soon as possible so you can show it was your intention of remaining on a permanent basis.
Just be aware of one other thing, if you sell your UK property after moving to Spain then you will be liable to Capital Gains Tax on the profit in Spain as it will not be classed as your primary residency anymore.

Best of luck. Everything depends on the politicians keeping their word, how much they want us to stay, how much your home country is will to compromise and, most importantly, how much you are willing to put in to make it all work.

marcliff wrote:As far as we know......


Just be aware of one other thing, if you sell your UK property after moving to Spain then you will be liable to Capital Gains Tax on the profit in Spain as it will not be classed as your primary residency anymore.

Best of luck. Everything depends on the politicians keeping their word, how much they want us to stay, how much your home country is will to compromise and, most importantly, how much you are willing to put in to make it all work.

Thanks Marcliff, as regards capital gains tax - if we move to spain after early July so that we won't become fiscal residents in 2019 under the 183 day rule and we don't sell the UK house until later in the year, say October/November but still within 2019, would we still be liable for capital gains tax in your opinion ?.
My understanding is that provided we move after early July then any worldwide income received during any period of 2019 will not be subject to Spanish income tax but that we would become liable for Spanish income tax in the fiscal year 2020 on any income received in 2020.

[quote="marcliff"]As far as we know......



“If not a resident before UK leaves then you can still apply but it becomes a bit more difficult. You have to have a higher income than a EU citizen, full healthcare which may or may not be provided by your home country. You have to apply in your home country so you can't come here for a month or so and then apply.
You can only come for a maximum period as yet undecided. Most can come for a period of 3 months and must then leave for the same period and come back again for another 3 months for a maximum of 6 months in one year. Citizens of some countries can stay for a period of 6 months but nothing is yet written down.”

As a genuine non resident who owns a property here I’m really unclear about whether or not I should be trying to get a residency. Given that I live in the UK most of the time and spend about 4 months in Spain spread over the whole year with the longest stay of 5 or 6 weeks, but usually about 10 days, I can’t believe this is an appropriate course of action. Yet all I can find in the the various bits of advice is that if you are going to live more than 3 months in Spain you need to get a residency. I haven’t seen any official advice for non residents that come and go, and who spend more than 3 but less than 6 non consecutive months in Spain. The ever helpful Marcliff appears to touch on this in the para above. If I understand it correctly you could potentially stay up to 3 months in the first half of the year and a further 3 in the second half? Until Brexit is resolved nothing is certain but just wondered what the current thinking is on this.

If Brexit does happen and we are treated as visitors from outside the Shenzhen zone (which is basically what is proposed in the draft agreement) then the limits will be:

Maximum single stay - 90 days
Maximum stay per year - 183 days
Maximum stay in any 180 day period - 90 days.

It’s the last restriction (which doesn’t currently apply) that will be the limiting factor for people like yourself (and me).
At the moment, you can spend 90 days in Spain, leave for 1 day then return for another 90. Depending on how that falls with the beginning and end of the calendar year you could potentially return again provided you don’t exceed 183 per calendar year, but nobody is really able to monitor this anyway as passports aren’t being checked at the land border.

Under the Schengen rules, UK passports will be checked throughout Europe (+ Norway and Switzerland) and you’ll be limited to the 90 days in any rolling 180 day period.
We prefer to spend time in Spain during the summer months and this new toile would have an effect on us. We’re in Spain now, and our stay will be around 5 weeks. We’ll then come out again in early July and leave in early September. Under the new rules this wouldn’t be possible, as it would be more than 90 days in a -80 day rolling period.
And, as I said before, under the proposed new rules that’s 90 out of 180 days in Europe, so a city break to Paris, Rome or Berlin counts towards your 90 day allowing the zone.

Applying for Spanish residency isn’t the appropriate thing to do unless you plan to spend the majority of the year in Spain and have your finances taxed in Spain and your state healthcare provided in Spain as well

Pete.

We have had our holiday home for 13 years now, used for about 20 weeks/year and had always planned to retire in April 2020.
We have had NIE numbers and registered on the Padron from day 1.
Our UK home is now sold, but can't take retirement until Jan 2020 earliest, so hopefully will commence the process of applying for residency ---- Will we have to jump through hoops to do so?????
Any thoughts and advice greatly appreciated.

Do you have to become a resident to live in Spain?

The Paul1000 point:
"- Can anyone recommend an English speaking Gestor or Solicitor local to Quesada that I could maybe contact to discuss this ?"
I would suggest SGM Abogados. As part of Sylvia's team ( all English speaking) Wayne organises appointments etc for Residency, NIE etc.

One of the problems is likely to be that in the run up to 31 October if we are hearing for a crash out " no deal" Brexit it might be really hard to get an appointment at the National Police. That was the case in Jan, Feb and March this year when there was a rush on appointments as the first crunch date of 29 March loomed. Therefore going through SGM and Wayne you could possibly explicitly ask him to sort an appointment for you for eg September and he may be able to do that. You need to then get all your other ' dolls in a row' incl. getting Spanish bank account opened and with the required evidence of sufficient funds or income going into it. Also health insurance or the S1s if you're state pension age etc.
SGM ( you'll see they are recommended by many people on here) can also handle all your other legal stuff for house buying etc.

Re the capital gains point, I wouldn't worry about it ( yes I see you are thinking if you come second half of year Spain won't treat fiscal residency until following year,that might be right, I still haven't squared the changeover details) as even if you did get capital gains I understand ( from earlier Marcliff post!) that it would be Capital gains made on the gain from when you became fiscal residents. Which unless you live in an area of UK where house prices are shooting up daily ( do such places exist anymore?) is unlikely to break the bank...

[email protected]

This is SGM Abogado email, their website still being revamped. I've been with them since 2015 and they handled all house purchase stuff for me as well as non resident tax etc and more recently the residency application. Would recommend.

nelly wrote:Do you have to become a resident to live in Spain?

Err...yes. If you are not Spanish. The procedure differs depending on if you are an EU or Non-EU national. Hence this very involved thread about procedures... And the significance of pre Brexit or post Brexit.