1) There is no “Spanish tax calculator”. I was just translating what the treaty says and doing the arithmetic with variables for clarity.

2) They only “caught” me because we had been a little too honest about reporting my existence to Hacienda the previous year. From the stories I’ve heard of caught tax evaders, I would rather be as honest with Hacienda as I can (especially if it only costs me 24€ to do so!) than to have them catch up to me when I retire and have them take all my savings/pension away.

I suspect that you could get away with your ATM scheme, particularly since Spain is such a cash-based economy. I thought of that and did so for a while in the UK, but the problem is that, if you’re going to do it with any decent quantity of money, you’ll have to be extracting the max limit every day and such regular withdrawals might raise an eyebrow on the other side of the Atlantic, particularly in post-9/11 United-terror-fearin-States.

Like I said, you could get away with it, but if you might be living in Spain for a long time, it might be smarter over the long run to pay Hacienda its due.

1) where can I find this “Spanish tax calculator?”

2) it seemed you had to do this because they “caught” you when monitoring your wife’s account. What would happen if there is no way they could “catch” you, that is, you were paid US dollars in a US account and just extracted the cash from the Spanish ATMs when you needed it? I mean, my question is not “can you get away with this?” as obviously, despite any risks, you can. My question is, say this is your situation, but you WANT to pay those Spanish taxes. How do you register to Hacienda to get ON their radar?

Does that make sense??

Anyway, great blog. I’ve lived in Madrid for several years and love reading about other American’s experiences in this great country! Thanks for having it!
Candy

I suppose we could have claimed that it was all savings (and that I sit around at home all day doing nothing). But you can’t just move money around like that. When we transferred the money from selling our house in England, we had to show the bank proof that the money came from a house sale.

So they noticed in 2007. How did they contact you? Or was it directly through your bank? Couldn’t you have just been transfering your savings?

They didn’t notice until 2007, and I’m not tellin’ anything else.

(Si lees esto y trabajas con Hacienda, estoy hablando hipotéticamente. Según los papeles, no vivia tanto tiempo en España antes de 2007 para necesitar declarar mi renta.)