# Home working in Spain



## Sanpedro (Feb 15, 2012)

With my current employment in the UK, I am able to become a home worker, but have no wish to do this in South London! I am looking to relocate to Spain and simply carry on with my job in a better environment and am seeking advice on such things as:


Is a residency permit required?
Do I need a Spanish/Gibraltarian bank account or can I carry on receiving my salary into my UK account?
Can I remain a UK resident for tax/pension contribution purposes (if, say, I visit the UK 3-4 times per year)? Or is it better to domicile myself in Spain?
As an EU citizen, do I qualify for free health care in Spain?
I'm sure there are many other questions but any advice will be much appreciated.


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## jojo (Sep 20, 2007)

Sanpedro said:


> With my current employment in the UK, I am able to become a home worker, but have no wish to do this in South London! I am looking to relocate to Spain and simply carry on with my job in a better environment and am seeking advice on such things as:
> 
> 
> Is a residency permit required?
> ...


No you dont need a residency permit, but you will need and NIE/resdidncia certificate

You can carry on receiving your money into your UK bank account

You would have to pay tax in the country where you live and spend more than 183 days in

You would only qualify for free health care in Spain if you either pay into the Spanish system or if you pay taxes and live in the UK, then you could claim under the reciprocal agreement - but you would have to live in the UK for more than 182 days a year to do that legally

Jo xxx


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## Stravinsky (Aug 12, 2007)

Tax residency and domicile are two different things
Only trouble with receiving your salary into the UK account and living in a different country is of course that your salary can then go up or down


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## Kalimera (Oct 19, 2011)

Sanpedro said:


> With my current employment in the UK, I am able to become a home worker, but have no wish to do this in South London! I am looking to relocate to Spain and simply carry on with my job in a better environment and am seeking advice on such things as:
> 
> 
> Is a residency permit required?
> ...


Sorry for being nosey  Are you involved in SEO by any chance?


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## Sanpedro (Feb 15, 2012)

Thanks for the info guys, appreciated.

SEO? Not sure what that is so I guess not.


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## Casslar (Feb 16, 2012)

I made a similar move 3 years ago, and found it was more straightforward to be self employed here and consult to my old employer. Then I could pay into local social security, be taxed in Spain only, and so on. It also makes it much easier to offset expenses incurred locally for work.

In truth it was a lot more hassle than I anticipated - Europe without borders, location independence, hahaha... but very much worth it. Working from home in Surrey was just not as much fun, and I can see the sea from my window now as well. Seeing clients in London a few times a year is easy and not too expensive if you are flexible about travel times.

One word of warning - check out the broadband options very carefully before you relocate, do NOT expect the speed and reliability you are used to in the UK! Think yoghurt pot + string...


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## Sanpedro (Feb 15, 2012)

Thanks, Casslar. The broadband issue is certainly important so will bear that in mind. It is broadband that will enable me to relocate so it is crucial that it performs - is it the same for you? if so, did you find a workable solution?

The bit about about being able to see the sea from my pc is equally important.... :ranger:


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## Casslar (Feb 16, 2012)

Sanpedro said:


> Thanks, Casslar. The broadband issue is certainly important so will bear that in mind. It is broadband that will enable me to relocate so it is crucial that it performs - is it the same for you? if so, did you find a workable solution?
> 
> The bit about about being able to see the sea from my pc is equally important.... :ranger:


Re broadband, you will need to decide where you want to be and then check out the options locally - if you are going to any reasonable sized town or along the coast you should have a choice of providers. The old telefonica landline infrastructure is very overstretched, and in some areas they will not take new subscribers, or just because there is a line to a property does not mean they can provide adsl if the exchange is oversubscribed. Wimax services are popular on the coast and where we are some competition has opened up in the last year or so, which has definitely improved customer service a bit!

Where we are now is geographically limited for wimax, we have to get by on between 3-4 meg - on a good day! Sometimes it goes off for half an hour, we ring and moan and it comes back. Not good when working with clients in London who take that for granted, especially if you depend on voip phones and working on a vpn. 

Watch out for satellite firms offering fast speeds - but capped data allowances. No good if you want to work on it all day, never mind spend your evenings downloading TV shows ;-)

Good luck!


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## Sanpedro (Feb 15, 2012)

Casslar said:


> Re broadband, you will need to decide where you want to be and then check out the options locally - if you are going to any reasonable sized town or along the coast you should have a choice of providers. The old telefonica landline infrastructure is very overstretched, and in some areas they will not take new subscribers, or just because there is a line to a property does not mean they can provide adsl if the exchange is oversubscribed. Wimax services are popular on the coast and where we are some competition has opened up in the last year or so, which has definitely improved customer service a bit!
> 
> Where we are now is geographically limited for wimax, we have to get by on between 3-4 meg - on a good day! Sometimes it goes off for half an hour, we ring and moan and it comes back. Not good when working with clients in London who take that for granted, especially if you depend on voip phones and working on a vpn.
> 
> ...



Muchas gracias! I also intend to get my Spanish up to standard too.


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## Casslar (Feb 16, 2012)

Good luck making it happen, honestly if you can bring your work with you (rather than looking for it locally) you can have a great life here in Spain. Lots of things will frustrate you - it's not just the broadband that goes off now and then, yesterday it was the electricity! - but you already have a great advantage being homeworking... as the technology continues to evolve and converge we can all become more and more location-independent day by day!

Where are you headed to in Spain?


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## djfwells (Sep 28, 2009)

Casslar said:


> Good luck making it happen, honestly if you can bring your work with you (rather than looking for it locally) you can have a great life here in Spain. Lots of things will frustrate you - it's not just the broadband that goes off now and then, yesterday it was the electricity! - but you already have a great advantage being homeworking... as the technology continues to evolve and converge we can all become more and more location-independent day by day!
> 
> Where are you headed to in Spain?


I deff agree about the broadband Casslar (at least in this area anyway !)
- BTW, how is your "success in Spain" project going ?


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## Casslar (Feb 16, 2012)

Poco a poco... But definitely gathering a head of steam 
Thanks for asking! I look forward to demonstrating that life here is still great, even with rubbish broadband..!


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## Sanpedro (Feb 15, 2012)

Yeah, it's pretty tough for Spaniards at the moment so relocating with my work is certainly useful. I'm looking to live on the south coast, somewhere in the area of San Pedro and Estepona. I know there will be frustrating aspects, but I also believe the life-style, climate, food, wine, culture and the people will offer a good trade-off. 

Not sure I can go down the self-employed route and I need to do some more investigating on such things as employer/employee pension contributions (tax breaks) but I'll get there.

Cheers for now!


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## Sanpedro (Feb 15, 2012)

Looking to go to the south coast, somewhere in the San Pedro / Estepona area. I need to do a bit more research on the subject of employer/employee pension contributions and the tax relief aspect of that.


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## Casslar (Feb 16, 2012)

Sanpedro said:


> Looking to go to the south coast, somewhere in the San Pedro / Estepona area. I need to do a bit more research on the subject of employer/employee pension contributions and the tax relief aspect of that.


Hmm trouble is once you live in Spain 183+ days you become tax resident here, and Spanish govt wants to tax you on your *worldwide* income. But to contribute to a UK pension you must be a UK taxpayer. In theory there is a double taxation treaty between UK and Spain so you should jot be charged in the same income twice BUT its v complicated... Esp as tax years do not even match up! Get good specialist tax advice before making any decisions, that will cost you, but be worth every cent!


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