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I don't think I've explained it very well ...
So splitting it in two, first you have the residency requirements. I think this might apply everywhere in the EU, but in Spain, they require that you can show you can provide for yourself and have contributed to some form of healthcare plan. So the ways to do this that I know of are:
Have a salaried job in Spain, through which you pay Social Security (SS) etc. In this case, you have to show three months of pay checks with SS payments before you can apply for residency.
Register as a freelancer (autonomo). Same as above, once registered, you'll need to show that you've paid SS for three months. This is taken straight out of your bank account from when you register. This is how my wife and I got residency (though I since got a job), and it cost me €75 set-up and €50 a month for an accountant, and SS tops out at €250 p/m but only after two years of payments, (it is a sliding scale until then, and in the first 1 year it is €65).
Have proof that you can support yourself and your dependants, which is some figure for every month for 12 months. And have proof that you have paid for private's healthcare that is valid in Spain. I have no idea if UK-bought healthcare will cover you, but even if it does, you'd need something in Spanish. I have a few friends who did this.
Secondly, you have tax, which is really entirely separate from the above. As others have said, you have tax residency based on where you reside for the majority of the year, although it also applies that if you do work from a particular country, you should be paying tax there. So depending on which of the above 3 options you take, you'll have different options.
When we moved here, I was a freelancer in Spain, invoicing my wife and I's UK LTD company (I was a freelancer before I moved), which invoiced UK clients in £. This is what my wife does, working as a freelancer for her old agency. I checked with a few accountants about this and no-one gave me any warning signs.
We love it here, and so are extracting ourselves from the UK tax system right now, which means notifying HMRC that our house is being rented but we live abroad, and changing our status with our LTD company to being foreign-resident directors. But for the first year, we just existed in both systems to some extent. It didn't cost us anything more in tax though.
beseku-
Thanks for all the detail!
So, let's say the first one is out.
Option 2 or 3 might work. With option 3, prove that I can support myself, is that just showing bank statements or something that shows income? Does it have to be Spanish accounts or Spanish income or can I just flash my UK bank statements?
Then let's just say I take out Spanish health insurance with option 3, would I also need to pay the SS charges mentioned in option 2? I'm just trying to work out which option is the least money and least hassle.There's mention of HMO for foreign health insurance policies but I'd need to check mine to see if that was an option. It might be possible:
"plans cover you for treatment within the UK only, unless:
you have International membership
you have Stand-alone travel cover with us""There is very limited cover on the plan for treatment you have outside the
United Kingdom. We strongly advise you to take out travel insurance when
travelling abroad."Sounds like it's probably easier to take out a separate Spanish Health insurance policy:
Sanitas private health plan for an individual €100 - €200 per month
Adeslas private health plan for individual €164 per month
Asisa Integral private health plan for individual €51.30 per month
Convenio Especial, pay-in public insurance (SNS) €60 up to the age of 65, €157 for 65+So, to tax, I'm PAYE in the UK now and I presume my current employer is gonna be like "what the fuck?" if I tell them not to take out UK tax like everyone else. I doubt we have accounting departments that will want to deal with Spanish tax details. I could pay in both countries but that makes it a bloody expensive proposition.
IR35, which was going to be broken this year but was pushed back another 12 months means that we are still paying contractors in other countries, but that won't work for me because I already moved to permanent PAYE employ.
hippy
I don't want to fall foul of either country's laws so if I'm not in Spain for 6 months and keep paying UK I'm cool on that side, but then I worry about not paying tax in Spain and any implications of that for me living there? I see it being fair enough if I didn't pay tax there I shouldn't get services, so I would want to pay tax there but then this makes it awkward for my company - they don't have a presence there and I could see them going "nup, too hard basket".