# cost of living



## karenandpino (Apr 15, 2009)

Hi all,

Getting the hang of this forum thing and its quite good so I have a few questions for anyone willing to help

Moving to the Torrox region in Oct 09 (Costa del sol) and would like any info on regular monthly outgoings i.e water, council tax, electric/gas, phone etc.

Do we need to pay taxes as we are planning getting the residencia status.

If anyone can think of other things, please help!

Karen


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## Tallulah (Feb 16, 2009)

karenandpino said:


> Hi all,
> 
> Getting the hang of this forum thing and its quite good so I have a few questions for anyone willing to help
> 
> ...


Hi Karen and Pino,

Well, your post throws up a lot of questions actually! Like, for example, are you planning on working/being self-employed/having your money here or the UK/working via internet but being paid by UK company. Simple global answer, income tax is paid in Spain on global earnings - they are all treated differently (time of declaration/time of payment/amounts earned) all have different rules, eg a self employed person declares every three months; monthly on international earnings - but even this is subject to questions such as is the service being provided to Spain or from Spain, ie a person at home on internet is seen as providing the service from Spain. All these little bumps on the tax road are usually dealt with by your friendly asesor/gestor for not a lot every quarter or year. People who are "normally" employed only have to make a tax declaration once a year for earnings over 28k euros as the rest are seen to be within the Spanish retention system, where you're deemed to be paid a bit like the PAYE in the UK. However, even people under the 28k euros have issues : anything you sell (shares/paintings/whatever) generating a profit or loss of more than 500 euros and you have to declare. Foreign earnings not subject to retention of (I think) 1000 euros are a trigger for declaration, regardless of yearly income. Basically if you're earning money of any sort in the UK and over certain limits (not a lot) here, you need to see a gestoria for recommendations on declaring for that year.

Regarding the residencia, if you're planning on spending more than 183 days in a year here, then you'll have to have that (and the sooner the better for all manner or reasons, not the least of which is getting all the red tape sorted - empadronamiento, etc).

Water bills : vary from region to region, but tend to be much less than UK equivalents. We pay about 35 euros a quarter (family of 5 : 2 adults/3kids) but we also know people who pay a lot more and also those that pay a lot less! A swimming pool (if that's on your list!) obviously impacts this, especially if you have to replenish it via the mains and have no well or somesuch water supply.

House rates : much less than the UK but again vary tremendously from region to region/area to area and like England depends upon value of property. We pay a 10th of what we paid in the UK and whilst the area is more rural than that of where we used to live in the UK, we weren't in a busy town either. 

Gas : has just come down in price (nearly 30% less bottle of butane) and whilst we don't use it, we know people who have saved quite a bit. Obviously it's down to usage. Can't really comment on gas mains I'm afraid as we don't have it here where we are.

Oil (central heating) : if you have oil for heating/water which many have, our last fill in early March was at 49 cents per litre, but in early December '08 it was at 98 cents per litre! (Hence the refill in March when not needed as much to take advantage of the price drop!) As you can see, this cost is very much driven by the price of oil - then it's your personal usage.

Electricity : again based on forum information appears to vary, but it's currently about 11.3 cents per kilowatt. So, depending your usage/kilowatts you use, there's about 20 euros standing charge type add ons per month depending upon what you have contracted with the supplier, but this remains fairly constant apart from the usage.

Telephone : about 20 euros per month standing charge with Telefonica and then your usage fairly comparable with the UK - but there's lots of deals with free national telephony with broadband deals and a lot of people use Skype and the like for international calls.

Oh yes, another charge if you're renting : might be community charges for common areas but from what I've read in other posts, this will probably be included in the rental.

Phew! Sore fingers now!

I'm sure there'll be some more comments - hopefully from those pertinent to the region you're looking at. 

Best of luck,

Tallulah.x

ps - although not mentioned, car insurance will be a bit more expensive than the UK, but it will probably include breakdown service/windscreen cover, etc and the road tax is much less than the UK.


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## Tanager (Mar 14, 2009)

My_Name_is_Tallulah said:


> Hi Karen and Pino,
> 
> Well, your post throws up a lot of questions actually! Like, for example, are you planning on working/being self-employed/having your money here or the UK/working via internet but being paid by UK company. Simple global answer, income tax is paid in Spain on global earnings - they are all treated differently (time of declaration/time of payment/amounts earned) all have different rules, eg a self employed person declares every three months; monthly on international earnings - but even this is subject to questions such as is the service being provided to Spain or from Spain, ie a person at home on internet is seen as providing the service from Spain. All these little bumps on the tax road are usually dealt with by your friendly asesor/gestor for not a lot every quarter or year. People who are "normally" employed only have to make a tax declaration once a year for earnings over 28k euros as the rest are seen to be within the Spanish retention system, where you're deemed to be paid a bit like the PAYE in the UK. However, even people under the 28k euros have issues : anything you sell (shares/paintings/whatever) generating a profit or loss of more than 500 euros and you have to declare. Foreign earnings not subject to retention of (I think) 1000 euros are a trigger for declaration, regardless of yearly income. Basically if you're earning money of any sort in the UK and over certain limits (not a lot) here, you need to see a gestoria for recommendations on declaring for that year.
> 
> ...


Wow, that was really helpful.
We're planning to move to Mallorca, I'm sure things are similar to this too.
Thanks My_Name_is_Tallulah!


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## Tallulah (Feb 16, 2009)

Tanager said:


> Wow, that was really helpful.
> We're planning to move to Mallorca, I'm sure things are similar to this too.
> Thanks My_Name_is_Tallulah!


 you're welcome!

Tallulah.x


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## jojo (Sep 20, 2007)

My_Name_is_Tallulah said:


> Hi Karen and Pino,
> 
> Well, your post throws up a lot of questions actually! Like, for example, are you planning on working/being self-employed/having your money here or the UK/working via internet but being paid by UK company. Simple global answer, income tax is paid in Spain on global earnings - they are all treated differently (time of declaration/time of payment/amounts earned) all have different rules, eg a self employed person declares every three months; monthly on international earnings - but even this is subject to questions such as is the service being provided to Spain or from Spain, ie a person at home on internet is seen as providing the service from Spain. All these little bumps on the tax road are usually dealt with by your friendly asesor/gestor for not a lot every quarter or year. People who are "normally" employed only have to make a tax declaration once a year for earnings over 28k euros as the rest are seen to be within the Spanish retention system, where you're deemed to be paid a bit like the PAYE in the UK. However, even people under the 28k euros have issues : anything you sell (shares/paintings/whatever) generating a profit or loss of more than 500 euros and you have to declare. Foreign earnings not subject to retention of (I think) 1000 euros are a trigger for declaration, regardless of yearly income. Basically if you're earning money of any sort in the UK and over certain limits (not a lot) here, you need to see a gestoria for recommendations on declaring for that year.
> 
> ...



WOW!!! Did YOU really write all that?? Impressive 

Jo xxxx


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## Tallulah (Feb 16, 2009)

jojo said:


> WOW!!! Did YOU really write all that?? Impressive
> 
> Jo xxxx



Not just a pretty face, Jo. I'll have you know I'm a certified, chartered housewife!! I do what I can.....*sigh*.

Tallulah.xx


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## Chica (Mar 23, 2009)

What can I say. I can't add any more to that Tallulah. Torrox's bills are the same as most other places accept rents, I think. However, I did read in a spanish newspaper that Torrox is the third most expensive place to live in Spain.  Whether that is true or not I don't know. We are certainly more expensive than Torre-del-Mar and Nerja for eating out.


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## jojo (Sep 20, 2007)

My_Name_is_Tallulah said:


> Not just a pretty face, Jo. I'll have you know I'm a certified, chartered housewife!! I do what I can.....*sigh*.
> 
> Tallulah.xx


Hey, I´m one of those too... and some!!!

Jo xxx


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## Tallulah (Feb 16, 2009)

Chica said:


> What can I say. I can't add any more to that Tallulah. Torrox's bills are the same as most other places accept rents, I think. However, I did read in a spanish newspaper that Torrox is the third most expensive place to live in Spain.  Whether that is true or not I don't know. We are certainly more expensive than Torre-del-Mar and Nerja for eating out.


I accept there are fluctuations in rental/property prices but I really believe that you have a choice in either a)living the life of an expat on permanent vacation with all that entails (and if you can, more power to you!) or b)knuckling down under the current economic situation, sticking to a budget and living life as you normally would if you were in the UK. Eating out?!?! Can't remember the last time.....good job I can cook!!

Tallulah.x


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