# Tax question on savings



## Peter J. Veldman (Mar 27, 2010)

Hi Forum,

Finaly after 3 years we are set to go to Spain. 
I am Dutch national and my wife is from Paraguay. Our son has 2 passports, Dutch and Paraguayan one.
I have an urgent question I would ask to the forum....excuse my English please.

As we sold our house here (among others) we will be carrying some cash into Spain. I know that max. 10k in euros is allowed WITHOUT registrating with border officials. That is 10.000 for each natural person...so in our case 30.000 euros. BUT...as you expected we have more. What are best options....in this? Thing is we do NOT have a bank account in Spain yet. I do have accounts in Holland and Germany. I could send it to there...and later send it to a spanish account...question is WHAT will I be paying for taxes in Spain as I know their government is in need of much money. I can read good spanish but I get a bit confused about this topic.
Anyone knows this??

I read on the forum something about gestors....thing is that will be a bit difficult as we still are in Paraguay for 2-3 more months. Plus we don´t know YET were we will end up....so I thought it was best to ask here first.

First off the money is all white...and I have the papers to proof it.

Sending the money online later from Paraguay to Spain (after we´ve opened a bank account in Spain) is NO option as I only can give a transaction order personaly at my Paraguayan bank! Besides that I don´t trust them too much...so I wanto make sure all the money is gone BEFORE we leave for Spain.

We are heading for Murcia region....or maybe Alicante/Elche. Right now much depends were my wife can find a job. She is a registrated nurse and her diplom is allready homologated(recognized is that correct?) in Spain,iow she can work in Spain as a nurse. We only need to collect her papers at the ministery in Madrid and after that we´ll be on our way south

Personaly I very much like Cartagena.....as they also have a very good day care center for autistic children.(our son is autistic) thats also the main reason why we wanted to get to Spain...as the treatment for such children is very low level or simply NOT present in Paraguay. 

If people want to send me only a PM and not respond in public thats OK with me....

TIA for your answers.

best regards

Peter


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## NickZ (Jun 26, 2009)

I wouldn't carry cash.

First of all carrying the legal limit can attract attention. Three of you doing it will risk you being stopped and questioned. 

Second point you can lose it. Pick pockets or just dropping it.

Ask your German and maybe the Dutch bank if they offer online SEPA transfers. The German should offer this if it has an online service. The cost for SEPA is no more then domestic transfers so tend to be very low cost. SEPA can be up to 50K per transfer and are done online. So very easy and quick. Between countries the rule is three days.

Are you asking about the tax on interest or on the capital?


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## zenkarma (Feb 15, 2013)

Peter J. Veldman said:


> Thing is we do NOT have a bank account in Spain yet. I do have accounts in Holland and Germany. I could send it to there...and later send it to a spanish account...question is WHAT will I be paying for taxes in Spain as I know their government is in need of much money.


It's difficult to understand from what you've written what your questions are.

If you want to transfer money to Spain from Paraguay, but don't yet have a Spanish bank account and need to transfer the money from Paraguay before you leave your best option is to transfer it to your Dutch or German bank account from Paraguay and then from your Dutch or German bank account to your Spanish one once you have a Spanish bank account.

As someone else suggested, I wouldn't personally carry that much money in cash into Spain for the reasons already given.

With regards to tax, you will only become liable for Spanish tax once you become a fiscal tax resident which will normally happen after you've been a Spanish resident for more than 183 days. Once that happens, you will be required to declare all your worldwide assets over €50,000 including property, bank accounts etc. You will only be charged tax on earned and unearned income over the Spanish personal allowance thresholds, you will not pay tax on asset values. In other words you will pay tax on interest produced by money in a bank account, not on the value of the money held in the bank account.

This is a useful site for understanding Spanish tax:

http://www.advoco.es/hot-topics/102-spanish-income-tax-rates.html


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## extranjero (Nov 16, 2012)

I was interested in what you wrote about treatment for autistic children.What is the treatment like in Spain?


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## Peter J. Veldman (Mar 27, 2010)

Thanks NickZ and Zenkarma for your answers. yes my bankaccounts in Germany or Holland can send it to Spain...no problem, even online. I am sorry my question was not that clear...indeed I was asking about the tax about the intrest. 

@Zenkarma...your link was very helpfull. Do you know IF it is possible to open an online bankaccount in Spain without a NIE number and without actualy first going there in person?? Up till now I haven´t been able to find one:-( My impression is that in general the banking sytem in Spain is a bit behind from countries like Holland and Germany.

I indeed also think it´s best to send the money to Germany/NL and from there to Spain. 

regards,

Peter


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## snikpoh (Nov 19, 2007)

Peter J. Veldman said:


> Thanks NickZ and Zenkarma for your answers. yes my bankaccounts in Germany or Holland can send it to Spain...no problem, even online. I am sorry my question was not that clear...indeed I was asking about the tax about the intrest.
> 
> @Zenkarma...your link was very helpfull. Do you know IF it is possible to open an online bankaccount in Spain without a NIE number and without actualy first going there in person?? Up till now I haven´t been able to find one:-( My impression is that in general the banking sytem in Spain is a bit behind from countries like Holland and Germany.
> 
> ...


All you need to open an account in Spain is your passport - you will then get a non-resident account. This can be converted later if you wish but you will get a new account number.

We opened our account remotely so it is certainly possible.


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## Peter J. Veldman (Mar 27, 2010)

extranjero said:


> I was interested in what you wrote about treatment for autistic children.What is the treatment like in Spain?


I will send you a PM later as I think this would be rather OT in this thread. But I can tell you that the Spanish approach is quite good regarding the treatment for autistic children. 
Offcourse in rural arears there are no such treatment centers...thats also why we want(NEED) to go to a larger city. Living in a "pueblo" is all nice...but alas I know all to well there are very limited facilities.
In Cartagena...and also in Alicante are good and new treatment centers for autistic children.

regards

Peter


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## Peter J. Veldman (Mar 27, 2010)

snikpoh said:


> All you need to open an account in Spain is your passport - you will then get a non-resident account. This can be converted later if you wish but you will get a new account number.
> 
> We opened our account remotely so it is certainly possible.


OO thats good to hear..I´ve searched a great lot on the inet...but couldn´t find one. Even cuentas for non-residents...they asked me to show up in person first...well thats a bit difficult if we are still so far away.

May I asked at which bank you were so lucky??

TIA

regards,

Peter.


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## snikpoh (Nov 19, 2007)

Peter J. Veldman said:


> OO thats good to hear..I´ve searched a great lot on the inet...but couldn´t find one. Even cuentas for non-residents...they asked me to show up in person first...well thats a bit difficult if we are still so far away.
> 
> May I asked at which bank you were so lucky??
> 
> ...


It was Banesto which may now be Santander - but there might be others.


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## Peter J. Veldman (Mar 27, 2010)

OOO thats great...I see in Cartagena there are 2 oficinas of them...I will call monday and ask.

thanks!!

peter


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## zenkarma (Feb 15, 2013)

Peter J. Veldman said:


> @Zenkarma...your link was very helpfull. Do you know IF it is possible to open an online bankaccount in Spain without a NIE number and without actualy first going there in person?? Up till now I haven´t been able to find one:-( My impression is that in general the banking sytem in Spain is a bit behind from countries like Holland and Germany.


I'm not really sure. I was under the impression that the best way to open a Spanish bank account was in person. However, Snikpoh is very knowledgeable about these things and I defer you to his advice—that you should be able to open a non-resident one with just your passport.

You will find that many things in Spain are somewhat behind other countries


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## Peter J. Veldman (Mar 27, 2010)

zenkarma said:


> You will find that many things in Spain are somewhat behind other countries


Yes I allready knew that...but then again it´ll be much much better then Paraguay!!! Trust me on that one.

After reading this..Uni?n bancaria: los ahorradores ya no estar?n a salvo en la quiebra de bancos

and other recent information I think it will be NOT wise to put my eggs in one basket;-) Especialy Spain many banks are not that stable. So I think (for us) its best to keep the biggest part of the $$$ in the Netherlands and Germany.

besides....I think also in Spain they have to accept IBAN payments now from forreign banks?? So I could always use my Dutch or German bankcards to pay something.

Thanks,

Peter


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## Peter J. Veldman (Mar 27, 2010)

I contacted the bank filial in Cartagena of Banesto....and they said to me it was possible to open a NON-resident account with just my passport.(iow without having a NIE)...BUT (there is always a BUT) I´d to go there in PERSON to open the account...!!! Sending in some documents via postal services or email was NOT possible.

Alas so that is impossible right now. We are still in paraguay. Tickets to Spain are quite expensive...It can wait....I still have my accounts in Holland or germany that I can use in the maintime.

maybe it is possible...but with another bank?? So I will look into it a bit further.
Thanks anyway for the tip..

Peter


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