# Moving to spain



## Tranter6 (Feb 25, 2015)

HI All

We are considering moving to Javea Spain and there are a few things we are not sure about.
Firstly is there a council/home taxI know not a council tax as such but something a long them lines!
Do you have Car insurance, tax MOT etc's
Do you have to pay for any education/schooling
And if i was to move but my husband stayed at home for approx 18mths due to work would we still get family allowence.
Thanks in advance


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## tonymar (Jan 29, 2015)

Hi ,

Well you do have to pay stuff in Spain ( would be nice if it was all free !! )

suma on your house and car 

yes you need to have car ins, tax and mot ( spanish equivalents any way )

not sure about family allowances, 

Our kids went through Spanish school, no fees but you do have to pay a lot !! for books and equipment 

Cheers Tony Agost Alicante


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## snikpoh (Nov 19, 2007)

tonymar said:


> suma on your house and car



SUMA is a tax collection area that operates in the Alicante area - it is not a tax.





Tranter6 said:


> HI All
> 
> We are considering moving to Javea Spain and there are a few things we are not sure about.
> Firstly is there a council/home taxI know not a council tax as such but something a long them lines!
> ...




Council tax in Spain is know as IBI or 'contribucion' (sp?)
Car insurance - of course
Car tax - this is a local tax administered by your local town hall
Car MOT - this is know as the ITV and is generally every 2 years. However, it depends on the age and type of the vehicle.
State schooloing is free but you have to pay for uniforms (if they have one) and for all the books and equipment. Concertados and private schools will cost you!
There are very few allowances which can be transferred to Spain. and they really don't have any here.


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## ABERAFON (Aug 15, 2014)

If your children are older than about 8 or 9 you would probably need to consider an international school as I suspect they would be too old really to be able to get good enough language skills etc. to keep up and international schools are expensive. With regard to family allowance, it depends on what your legal status is in Spain, from what you have said I suspect you may not be able to keep your welfare benefit and their are few benefits available in Spain as Snikpoh has said


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## CristiandelaTorre (Feb 26, 2015)

Suma Charges for IBI (municipal yearly tax)
Car pays a yearly municipal tax as well.
You can access public or private school as aberafon told you may depend on the age.
You can get family allowance


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## jojo (Sep 20, 2007)

CristianSelected said:


> Suma Charges for IBI (municipal yearly tax)
> Car pays a yearly municipal tax as well.
> You can access public or private school as aberafon told you may depend on the age.
> *You can get family allowance*



What family allowance??????

Jo xxx


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## CristiandelaTorre (Feb 26, 2015)

You would not get allowances from the government , but you can check municipal allowances for families. Depending on the city there are some.


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## jojo (Sep 20, 2007)

CristianSelected said:


> You would not get allowances from the government , but you can check municipal allowances for families. Depending on the city there are some.


I've never ever heard that before. The only possibility of getting any form of child allowance is if one parent is working in the UK and paying NI - that way child allowance may be paid to that parent. But unless you have paid into the Spanish system, they wont pay you anything

Jo xxx


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## ABERAFON (Aug 15, 2014)

CristianSelected said:


> You would not get allowances from the government , but you can check municipal allowances for families. Depending on the city there are some.


Just to clarify the situation regarding child benefit, you can get it if you have some time in Spain with your children, ( less than the resident qualification) you can qualify as follows:

If your partner is working in the UK and paying NI and Taxes in the UK you can qualify for child benefit.

BUT

If you work in the UK but your spouse and children reside in Spain for more than 183 days, the Spanish government will consider you a resident and subject to Spanish taxes, as such you cannot therefore claim child benefit.

In the case that was covered in the original post it would be unlikely that you could legally qualify for any UK benefits. You can check with the UK government benefits office.


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## jojo (Sep 20, 2007)

ABERAFON said:


> Just to clarify the situation regarding child benefit, you can get it if you have some time in Spain with your children, ( less than the resident qualification) you can qualify as follows:
> 
> If your partner is working in the UK and paying NI and Taxes in the UK you can qualify for child benefit.
> 
> ...


When we lived in Spain (mind you it was 5 or so years ago now), my husband worked and continued paying his taxes and NI in the UK (he commuted), so we were told that he (not me) was eligible to claim child allowance for our two children who lived with me in Spain. We were also eligible for S1 health insurance, due to him continuing to pay NI in the UK. The children and I were residents and I did have to fill out a tax form, altho I wasnt earning anything. OH wasnt in Spain enough to pay his taxes there and his home was in the UK - we kept our house there. He was a visitor to Spain for a 3 or 4 days a fortnight 

That said, stuff has changed recently.

Jo xxx


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## ABERAFON (Aug 15, 2014)

jojo said:


> When we lived in Spain (mind you it was 5 or so years ago now), my husband worked and continued paying his taxes and NI in the UK (he commuted), so we were told that he (not me) was eligible to claim child allowance for our two children who lived with me in Spain. We were also eligible for S1 health insurance, due to him continuing to pay NI in the UK. The children and I were residents and I did have to fill out a tax form, altho I wasnt earning anything. OH wasnt in Spain enough to pay his taxes there and his home was in the UK - we kept our house there. He was a visitor to Spain for a 3 or 4 days a fortnight
> 
> That said, stuff has changed recently.
> 
> Jo xxx


HI JoJo,

You are absolutely correct, but Spain has tightened up its definitions of residency over the last few years and there is an article about this very thing on C and D solicitors website for people buying in Spain, it states that spouses living in Spain with children make the Spanish residence the other spouse's residence as it is the family home. How it is applied I don't know and there is reference to it on the UK website. But if you are from Poland I understand you can claim for children in the home country as they view it differently. It is a grey area but I personally would not want to do anything illegal with the UK benefits system. That is my understanding, as if Spain consider you a resident then the UK will not pay out and you will have to complete tax forms in both countries, it would be too complicated for me as I have always hated filling out tax forms even when I had an accountant


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## jojo (Sep 20, 2007)

ABERAFON said:


> HI JoJo,
> 
> You are absolutely correct, but Spain has tightened up its definitions of residency over the last few years and there is an article about this very thing on C and D solicitors website for people buying in Spain, it states that spouses living in Spain with children make the Spanish residence the other spouse's residence as it is the family home. How it is applied I don't know and there is reference to it on the UK website. But if you are from Poland I understand you can claim for children in the home country as they view it differently. It is a grey area but I personally would not want to do anything illegal with the UK benefits system. That is my understanding, as if Spain consider you a resident then the UK will not pay out and you will have to complete tax forms in both countries, it would be too complicated for me as I have always hated filling out tax forms even when I had an accountant


Yes, I've heard this before - we did use a UK accountant and a Spanish gestor to make sure we were legal and they both said that because the house in the UK was ours and my husband spent more time there than in our rented house in Spain that his "centre of interest" was the UK and he owned his business in the UK. But it has been said that what we did was wrong - but, hey, I dont think we did, it wasnt intentional and the so called experts guided us! Even Newcastle changed the child allowance from me to my OH cos they knew our situation.

Jo xxx


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## Pesky Wesky (May 10, 2009)

There is lots of info here, including info about benefits
https://www.gov.uk/living-in-spain

Also look at the FAQ's in the stickies which tell you about paperwork, cars, renting, buying, education, tax...
A few quick pointers
As said before, education is free, but you have to buy materials, books and pay for obligatory trips which may add up to @300€ - 400€. Older children may struggle with the language...
You are required by the Spanish authorities to register after 90 days and to have healthcare covered and around 600€ per adult per month.
Unemployment is very bad, but if you have that covered there are still many positive things about life here


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