16 Jul 2012 3:40 PM:

 Well – Woodbug really started something here!

 I am answering Royspan’s post –

 I actually mentioned small businesses getting clobbered and what I really meant was that, because insufficient taxes are collected elsewhere, the whole welfare effort (pensions, sick-pay, medical, unemployment etc.) has to be entirely supported by the employers contributions.

In earlier times, before Spain joined the Euro zone, that arrangement worked OK because salaries were relatively low. Since then we have had raging inflation and, coupled with 1 months annual holiday + 16 or so days national and local holidays + absenteeism due to the “Puente” culture + the black economy, there is little hope for small businesses.

So your ideas would seem fine but in the real world (of Spain today) it just won’t work because the “Mediterranean attitude” is too deeply embedded in the culture.

I would go further by saying that, in the present economic climate, very few businesses can survive without at least a little, perhaps quite a lot, of “creative accounting” simply due to the fierce competition from the clandestine sector.

I have lived and run my own businesses in Spain for 40 years and it has never been as bad. I wonder how many other business people agree with me.

In my view the only way is for Spain to leave the Euro, re-introduce the Peseta and let it devalue.

Homefider

 

This message was last edited by homefinder on 16/07/2012.
Thread: The Politicians in a Panic

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15 Jul 2012 3:23 PM:

Thanks Woodbug for a very interesting post, I would like to adda couple of points.

Taxes Generally: Unless social security contributions by the employer are reduced there seems no way forward for improving the economy but there is a real problem in this respect.
Personnal income tax (IRPF) is not particularly low compared with other countries but, as Weedbug states around a cuarter of the economy is black. Therefore without clobbering small businesses (which are the backbone of any economy) they just don't collect enough.

Spanish National Characteristics: A lot has been said about German competitiveness and, from what I have seen, most of the other northern Euiropean peoples are the same, including the Brits. Meanwhile, in the face of the worst economic crisis everr, they still have their 4 weeks holidays and national & local fiestas (which normally result in a "puente").
I don't thnk that they really want to change much and I don't think that foreign residents or tourists would want them to change.
However, unless they do change, I cannot see any way forward for them within the Euro.

Germany could leave the Euro: This would provide a solution but that would only be temporary because that does not resolve the economic differences between north and south. 

So it loook like the Euro is doomed!

Homefinder - Moraira

Thread: The Politicians in a Panic

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02 Jun 2012 4:49 PM:

 Dear fazeress

I am sure that if your motives are honest and transparent you will not have any problems but best to sort everything before you arrive.

The best way is to contact a local gestor to handle your paperwork. You don't say where you intend to live but I am sure that there will be a forum member there who would reccommend someone, so you only have to ask here.

I guess that you would need to exercise a little patience because nobady seems to realise what its about yet.

Homefinder - Moraira

Thread: New administrative requirements for the EU member state residence certificate

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02 Jun 2012 3:53 PM:

Let’s think about motives behind all this, which are obvious. I don’t know if anyone has noticed but the Spanish economy is experiencing a bit of a recession but perhaps “melt-down” is a better way of expressing it.

Fiscal discipline has never been a plus point in Mediterranean countries but previously, with a buoyant economy, it was not an important asset. Now, in spite of recently imposed austerity measures, the treasury is still running a huge deficit, is being forced to pay unsustainable interest on it’s debt and there has been a huge flight of wealth out of Spain (100 billion Euros in the 1^st quarter of 2012 – 10% of GDP).

They are probably bolting the stable door after the burro has done a runner but that’s another story.
The austerity measures and increased taxation are just not working and I would imagine that the black economy is increasing exponentially. Meanwhile small businesses everywhere are facing unsupportable competition from the clandestine sector and are either throwing the towel in and joining them or having to resort to “fiscal flankers”.

Without even studying the new arrangements I can see what they are trying to do. They want proof that foreign residents have an adequate means of supporting themselves; so the writing is on the wall!

Can we really blame them? After all other countries are preparing measures to protect themselves in case of a Grexit, Spexit or even a Eurogeddon. The UK has emergency measures ready to protect against a flight people from Europe and the Swiss to prevent the inward flow of Euros

Perhaps some good will come out of this finally and we’ll get a photo ID document back. I have lived in Spain for 40 years and don’t mind having to show my passport to get into the UK, even though my Spanish friends get in the other queue to present their DNI’s. What I do object to having to show my UK passport everywhere and even take it when I cross the border for a bit of carp-fishing in France.

Homefinder – Moraira.

 

Thread: New administrative requirements for the EU member state residence certificate

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09 Jul 2010 11:52 PM:

Dear Maria

Please permit me to "eat humble pie" and admit that you were right and I was wrong about the most important aspect of this discussion - Does an owner of a single property in the Valencia region have to register it as a Tourist Unit or not?
The answer is NO! The owner just has to register that there is tourist interest but there is no registration number or the need to quote this in an advertisment; you also correctly referred to this fact in another thread.
HOWEVER - The owner of a single property is obliged to comply with all the other conditions, which you set out in the first post of this thread.
Apart from this, anyone who comercialises TWO or more properties, whether owned directly or rented on behalf of the actual owner, is obliged to register each property and publish the registration details.

I was misled about this point by an abogada acting for my trade association. To my best knowledge she was in turn misled by an official of the Valencia Toiurist Agency. The question has now been clarified and the association sent a note to all members in this respect.

Thank you for you patience.

Homefinder

Thread: Do I need a license to rent out my apartment? Valencia region

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