Eloise Horsfield
By Eloise Horsfield
OVERSEAS assets worth over €50,000 must be declared by all residents in Spain by March 2013, a new decree has stated.
Funds in overseas bank accounts, stocks, real estate, bond market portfolios and insurance policies will need to be declared to the tax authorities (Hacienda) by the end of the first quarter.
What’s more, anyone declaring overseas assets will need to be able to prove they were acquired with declared money and that all taxes were paid on the capital before it left Spain.
The crackdown will affect thousands of expats who have residency in Spain and who are still in possession of assets back home.
Richard Alexander from LJ Financial Planning said: “This is part of legislation aimed at rounding everybody up so that all residents are aware of their obligation to declare any income-yielding assets.
“They are throwing out a net in order to gather information about investments overseas to ensure everything is being declared.
“Lots of people are currently sitting under the radar, and this is all part of the increased vigilance of the tax authorities, and the information sharing which will allow them to look at every angle where there might be tax to collect.”
The Spanish government is now in the process of creating the forms taxpayers will use to submit their declarations, with non-submission punishable by law.
Ok, so we’ve been warned. I say, so what? How’s the Spanish Government going to pay for the resources to implement it. If they do, the ultra rich will pay for avoidance advice. The rest of us won’t yield enough tax revenue to pay for doing it in the first place. Help me out here. What’s the point in it? It must be politics, right?
heard this was a scam by some muppet
Any tax obtained (doubt there will be much anyway) will be [more than ]offset by the sheer effort of trying to enforce it.
Any sizeable bond assets that have been properly and appropriately advised and set up will have 5% tax-free income anyway. These are compliant products in UK, EU and spanish law.
These laws (joke) would be unenforceable to offshore institutions anyway.
You cannot tax a nation into prosperity. Will only cause massive civil unrest.
The bankers and politicians who created the mess in the first place should be the ones being punished. They will all, no doubt, be sitting on nice salaries, bonuses and pensions that are the envy of everyone else.
It certainly does make you smile.
Spain a bankrupt country where bribery and corruption is second nature is expecting us mere mortals to stand up, be honest, and declare all our worldwide assets in the hope they may just be able to drag a few euros from us to help fund their continuing spending spree. Well well!!
This new law is paving the way to a new wealth tax and/or a new tax on savings. Get a nice fat mattress and do as the Spanish do.