17 May 2012 16:02:

THE National Police telephone service for placing a denuncia (902 102 112) is temporarily unavailable due to the service provider filing for bankruptcy according to Spanish Press.

Oh dear.  It really does feel like things are starting to collapse in Spain.  The latest Bankia news not looking good either...

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01 May 2012 20:48:

I wouldn't bother stressing about the toll if you have a non-Portuguese registered car.  I used it there and back a couple of months ago and didn't bother paying and I didn't have any problems.  It just seemed like too much effort trying to pay.

The only cars you see on the Algarve toll road are Spanish cars, and I doubt any of them have paid, knowing what the Spanish are like.

The European Commission have recently ruled that the toll road is actually illegal, so another reason not to bother paying.  More info here:

www.algarveresident.com/0-45978/algarve/tolls-are-illegal-says-commission

 

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01 May 2012 20:42:

I read recently that unemployment is only 21% in Madrid!!!  I'd imagine Barcelona is similar or a bit lower.

On the south coast where I am based, we have unemployment at 36.37% in Cadiz province and 34.61% in Malaga province.  Truly staggering figures.

I'm usually at work during during the day but the other morning I went for a walk around our local area just before I headed off to the airport.  It was amazing to see how many people of working age there were just hanging around on the streets.  These were locals as well, not tourists.

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18 Apr 2012 23:42:

Most of the jobs boom in Gibraltar in recent years have been in online gaming/gambling due to the very low tax rate.  The UK government just announced that these companies that service the UK market will now be taxed by the UK.  So this is a bit of a worrying development...

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16 Apr 2012 13:54:

You don't have to declare the ISA's to the Spanish tax authority, just the interest received.

The Spanish government is introducing a new law whereby all Spanish residents will have to declare any overseas bank accounts (including ISAs), real estate assets, shares etc.

Most people will rightly ignore this new law though...

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