27 May 2013 10:25 PM:

 If taxation was only used to provide efficient and necessay services one might feel better disposed to pay. As it is the major part of taxation is used to pay for bureaucrats who waste huge amounts of time and even more paper producing agreements such as this. Then there's the part which is spent fighting other people's wars!

I pay tax, just like everyone else, every day. As a drinker and a driver I pay at least my fair share. The issue here is how much, if any, tax one pays on investment income or pension. The solution is simple; become a tax exile. Spend ip to 89 days each year in the UK if you feel embarrased to overstay or more if you enter from Ireland where there is no imigration control on the Northern Ireland border. Use the Cherbourg/Roscroff ferries and dates of entry into and out of Spain cannnot be traced either. Yes, technically one must apply for residence after spending three months in any EU country but have you ever heard of anyone being prosecuted for failing to register. After all the treaty clearly says any sanction for not registering cannot be punitive.

Tuck all your assetts away in tax havens and use debit cards to withdraw cash. The EU and the old European havens are no longer options, David Cameron has even written to our own British Crown Protectorates asking them nicely to get their houses in order. Belize and Singapore are still serious options and in the latter one can have Sterling, Dollar and Euro accounts wth debit cards and Dollar credit cards. It is even possble to have online contol which allows instant transfer of funds between Singapore and UK at no cost.

Posters who find these ideas morally reprehensible are entitled to their opinion - in some countries - provided that opinion is not considered reprehensible by the government of the day. They possibly wouldn't agree with my other belief that death duty is the one efficient form of taxation - set at 100%. I console myself with the thought that since all property is theft we are all on the same level.

Thread: New Double Taxation Agreement between Spain and UK

--------------------------------------

20 Oct 2012 8:19 AM:

The only reason any official institution cracks down on anything is if they see it as a source of revenue. Some of us find the priviledged place churches enjoy in society offensive, far more offensive than someone paying for a service which is older than most of the churches. Do we hear anything of them being cracked down on, not on your nelly because then the government would need to take on the real powers in our society.

I see the issue a svery simple. Ensure the existing law on exploiitation, tax, planning and anything else which applies to the majorty is applied universally, without fear or favour. Apply a property tax to church buildings in the same way it is applied to all others, remove the charitable status accorded to religious bodies and force monks and priests to work withthin the woking hours directive for at least minimum pay Ensure brothels charge vat.and issue reciepts, perhaps insist their users undergo the same identity checks which apply to bank customers. 

Broaden your hosrizons, lose the moral high ground; it will give you vertigo and think imaginatively about how we can rebuild the failed institutions of Western Europe. Leave the underdogs alone and concentrate on reforming the people who are the real problem, the millenia old institutions which weild real power in our society and answer only to themselves. Beware the controls being proposed which will tighten the grip of these powerful and invisible people who really run society. We do not need a federal Europe imposed by stealth. The German Chancellor iss out to achieve what a predecessor failed to achieve, European domination and she's nearly there.

Don't allow the authorities to use smokescreens like this to hide what really matters, leave these poor sex workers alone and sort out the politicians.

Thread: Spain cracking down on prostitution!

--------------------------------------

06 Oct 2012 7:35 AM:

From recent experience it is entirely possible to live on €1000 per month in Spain.

We paid €495 per month for a very comfortably furnished modern villa with superb views, a pool and jaccuzzi, ensuite dressingroom and luxury bathroom with another jacuzzi, full  entertainment package, internet  connection and a large garden. Central heating, which we never used and a log-burner which provided all necessary heating.

Being 3 kilometres from the nearest pub cut down on socializing and having only half a dozen neighbours within walking distance made for a solitary lifestyle but so relaxing.

A supermarket trip took more than half a day (50km driving) and encouraged sensible buying; the markey for vegetables, Lidl for essentials like stilton, Typhoo and wine, Mercadona for most other dry goods, beer and fish and the local Spaish butcher for meat. A shopping trip would set us back €150 - 200.

Realistically sized fridge and freezer meant a trip only only once in three weeks and the car stayed parked for most of the rest of the time. It cost around €250 to insure and petrol becasue it was a small car, cost around €40 per month.

A prepaid sim card and internet access cost  around €40 per month which leaves arounf €200 a month for discretionary spending. 

I completely agree that a sink fund is essential, as it is anywhere. 

Each to their own:

 

If you want to spend your time socializing with other Birts then you can double that budget. The local bar is never the meeting place, more likely a trendy cafe; health is the subject of the day, every day and that's guarateed to send you to the doctor even if only for valium so good health insurance is essential. You'll need a samrt phone to maintain your contact list and that meal out will cost an average of €25 per head without wine.

We like the quiet lifestyle and came for the weather not the socializing, others may find it more challenging as one is forced to amke one's own entertainment and spend weeks on end alone with one's partner. 

No doubt my views will be challenged, they usually are but just to dispell misconceptions we were only twenty minutes from the coast, not much further from excellent medical facilities and within driving distance of two international airports.

On the sublect of flight costs we have booked at short notice and except in high season can usually find a flight for around €100. We use a Spanish engineer who charges us Spanish prices to repair the car and parts can be fairly easily obtained via the internet  at prices well below those quoted by English speaking garages.

All of that said we have now abandoned Spain for sunnier climes where everyone speaks English, property prices are significantly lower than even Fire Sale Spain and no, we're not saying where as expats are still thin on the ground here and thats the way we like it.

Thread: Living on 1000.euros

--------------------------------------

24 Sep 2012 9:59 PM:

 and sight unseen I'll generously  double that.

Thread: Is Now The Time to Buy or Sell ??

--------------------------------------

24 Sep 2012 8:54 AM:

 "Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal.”

Thread: Is Now The Time to Buy or Sell ??

--------------------------------------