Hi Danny and welcome to the forum.

I have a few questions to ask please before I can give you my thoughts on your post.

1.Where do you plan to live in Spain.

2.If you intend to live here will you commute back here at weekends as this can become very expensive during the summer season unless you book well in advance even with Easyjet and Ryanair.

3.You say your employment is home based do you work for a company but on a self employed basis.

4.Do you have any if so what age children.

5.Do you intend to keep some form of house or flat in the UK for you during the week while you work.

6.Have you considered winter time flights and the possible delays and how would your employer feel about this.

7.Would you consider working here and not in the UK if it were possible.

8.How does you wife feel about being left in a strange country all week with just the kids.

I think what you have to consider is will you be better of out here after you have paid all your flights back and forth each week. Are you prepared to be away form the family all week and possible even longer if flight are delayed or cancelled.

Living in Spain is great and the cost of living is about one third cheaper than the UK. The cost of houses is cheaper as well depending on where you want to go. If you are prepared to live with the Spanish as they say and not with the Ex-Pats (not that there is anything wrong in doing that) but I look at it like if you are fully prepared to go to the effort of selling in the UK and moving to another country wherever it is, then you should mix and live with the people, that is my own personnel opinion and choice by the way.

As an example I retired and moved here to the Costa Brava which is N.E Spain, and bought a 4 double bed 4 bath, kitchen, dinning, lounge, pool, garden and 10 minutes walk from the sea for approx £250,000, but it is not on the normal tourist route even though it is only 10 minutes form the sea. We do get tourists during the summer but our season is only from Easter till the end of September and mostly French, Dutch, Germans and Spanish from Barcelona.

Please feel free to answer all or none of my question and I hope I have not been to rude or offended you in asking them, that was most certainly not my intention I just want to help like everybody on here.

Regards
A1gjv

A1gjv

I think what Danny means by saying that his job will be home based, is that he will be working from his new home in Spain, so won't be travelling back and forwards.

As I understand it , Danny, you can still opt to be taxed in the UK if you wish, but it's a very complex issue dependant on individual circumstances, so you'd be best to seek advice from an accountant. However, there's absolutely nothing to stop you from working from home anywhere in Spain if you want to.

Hi A1gjv,

You raise some very good points, here are the answers to your questions:

>1.Where do you plan to live in Spain.

I am currently fairly open-minded but would like to be within an hour of the med-coast. Recent holidays have been in Javea and I love this area but I have to be realistic on price with the initial intention to buy something that we could live in comfortably but at the same time would need to be substainable if my income was under threat (e.g. no mortgage or certainly no more than £50,000 on mortgage). I am concerned about Costa Blance due to the well-publicised Valencian authority land claim issues.

>2.If you intend to live here will you commute back here at weekends as this can become very expensive during the summer season unless you book well in advance even with Easyjet and Ryanair.

I would take occasional visits to the office (say once/twice a month) which is actually next to Stansted Airport (thankfully) but office visits are in no way a requirement so I can work to the cheaper flights for my visits even if the frequency between visits was increased. The company I work for is not cash-rich so visits are normally made to be value for money. For example, I currently fly to the office from Newquay at £30 return because it's cheaper than driving.

> 3.You say your employment is home based do you work for a company but on a self employed basis.

No, I am full-time employed at present by my company.

>4.Do you have any if so what age children.

Two kids, one is 6 (7 in Oct) and a baby approaching 1.

>5.Do you intend to keep some form of house or flat in the UK for you during the week while you work.

No, when visiting office I stay with a friend and nominal cost is met by the company. I do not plan to keep any property in UK.

6.Have you considered winter time flights and the possible delays and how would your employer feel about this.

As mentioned earlier, I can work around differing schedules as visits to the office are not obligitary. I actually insist on the visits more than my employers do for the purpose of keeping sane (working from home does tend to get to you after a while in my opinion).

7.Would you consider working here and not in the UK if it were possible.

Absolutely and would consider this and possible expansion possibilities for my current employer into the Spanish market.

8.How does you wife feel about being left in a strange country all week with just the kids.

Apart from odd visits, this doesn't really apply but I appreciate the point you are making.

I am approaching this move with the intention of moving to Spain, not moving England to Spain. I appreciate that this may have been said by many a mover but I would like to think that we would make the move for the improvement in the quality of life and to appreciate what Spain as a country offers us. I would not consider coming until I have a good grasp of the language for example.

Your particular circumstances sound idillic although I have never been that far north apart from being coached from Gerona to Salou for a holiday some time ago.

Regards,
Danny

Just wanted to make this request again as there does seem to be a large community on here - is there anybody on these boards who lives in Spain but continues to work for a UK company as a full or part-time employee - whether they work from their home in Spain or fly to the office each week.

I am specifically interested in know how the tax implications work for you?

I will obviously need to speak to an accountant with some experience in this area but would be very interested to hear of real experiences.

Regards,
Danny

Danny,

I am no expert but I would say that even if you live in Spain you are employed by a UK company and as such are required to pay UK income tax national insurance etc, therefore you would not be required to pay any income tax in Spain because you have no income here.

You will be required to pay the local tax on your house where ever you buy, it is the Spanish version of the UK council tax normaly very low, car tax if you buy a Spanish car or register your UK car in Spain but again that is quite low compared to the UK.

Regards
a1gjv

Danny, I would advise you to seek the advice of a tax accountant who deals with ex-pats on a regular basis, immediately, in order that you can clarify matters and also start planning.

If you make regular visits to the UK you may well still be classed as resident and ordinarily resident by the Inland Revenue even if you do not retain a residence. It does depend on how many nights per annum you will spend in the UK. If you are treated as R/OR then you will be taxed in the UK.

I cannot comment on the Spanish side of things but there is a double taxation agreement between the UK and Spain which basically means that either country will give you credit for tax paid in the other country when raising your tax bill. However as tax regimes in different countries have different rates and thresholds you may not be fully covered.

You really do need specialist advice.

Thank you folks.

Any recommendations for a UK accountant familiar with such matters.

I'm currently based in Devon but my head office is in Essex so I'm there at least once a month or so.

Regards,
Danny