# moving back to spain



## ndodd84 (Sep 14, 2014)

hi all, new to this site and hoping you are all full of really useful information for us in what is about to be a huge decision for us. A bit of history for you, we lived in alaicante about 5 years ago for a year, we loved it and didnt want to come home but ran out of money and needed work, at this point we had 2 children aged 5 and 1 at the timee. Since being back in england i have been miserable (we have spent the last few years continually moving area to try to find a place to call home, i have missed spain terribly and genuinely feel in my heart that spain is where i call home. 
We are just as skint in england as what we were in spain apart from here the weather is miserable, we are unhappy and work our socks of for what seems to be no benefit. We are both wanting to move back to spain in 2015 and make it permanent, we now how 3 children (10, 6 and almost 3), we dont have any savings or assets, as we rent in UK. we are going to start frantically saving now, and selling off stuff we dont need or wont be taking with us, the plan is to move my husbands IT business from uk to spain and he will retain his current clients as he is able to work remote, i will close down my own UK business doing wedding dessert catering and will start it up again in spain and concentrate on all events/parties etc, we would rent a property to start off and this time try to actually make a life out there rather than a working holiday which we must admit is what we did last time. 
As far as language barrier goes i picked up spanish quickly as we moved to a traditional spanish village where we were the only english there and have remembered a lot of it, i can hold a conversation and get by, in the meantime we are looking to all get our spanish up to speed with things like rosetta stone, lessons and tuning into the language by watching stuff on tv in spanish. 
I know this all sounds like a pipe dream but we all really want to be there and will do it starting from nothing if we need to. you only live once and we would rather fail trying than never trying at all. 
so my questions to you all are what are living costs like there now? any tips on learning the language better? do we keep the english cars or swap over to spanish ones (we lost a lot of money on our english car last time as we sold it in spain) we already have our NIE numbers etc from last time (apart from the youngest child) whats the do's and dont's of moving out there, best way to cope with healthcare costs, how does working self employed in spain work? any other advice would be greatly appreciated. 
sorry for the long thread, i just want to make sure that this time there are no suprises that we are fully prepared and that it will work as a permanent move.


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## mrypg9 (Apr 26, 2008)

Regulations now require that you must show an income of €600per month approximately per person including children paid into a Spanish bank account plus €6000 before working in Spain.
Times are maybe as bad or in some areas worse than in 2006.
You will definitely not be able to keep your UK plated car.
But there are people like Xavia who can tell you more....


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## brocher (Mar 21, 2011)

If your businesses aren't earning you enough to live comfortably in the UK, then it's very unlikely they will in Spain. 

As self employed, you'll each have to pay upwards of 260€ per month in the equivalent of National Insurance, that's whether you earn a penny or not. There is a reduced start up rate at the moment for a limited period of time, who knows whether that will still be the case next year or not.

Your self employed NI (autonomo) contributions will cover you for healthcare. Otherwise you'll need contracted employment or private health insurance.

On top of that you'll pay tax which could be more than you pay in the UK depending on earnings.

Your eldest will be too old to cope in state school, so you'll have to pay for International School and that can be very expensive. The consensus seems to be that even for those in state school, you have to pay a lot more in Spain for text books etc than you do in the UK.

Otherwise the general advice is that however much you need to live in the UK, you'll need the same amount in euros in Spain.


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## xabiaxica (Jun 23, 2009)

ndodd84 said:


> hi all, new to this site and hoping you are all full of really useful information for us in what is about to be a huge decision for us. A bit of history for you, we lived in alaicante about 5 years ago for a year, we loved it and didnt want to come home but ran out of money and needed work, at this point we had 2 children aged 5 and 1 at the timee. Since being back in england i have been miserable (we have spent the last few years continually moving area to try to find a place to call home, i have missed spain terribly and genuinely feel in my heart that spain is where i call home.
> We are just as skint in england as what we were in spain apart from here the weather is miserable, we are unhappy and work our socks of for what seems to be no benefit. We are both wanting to move back to spain in 2015 and make it permanent, we now how 3 children (10, 6 and almost 3), we dont have any savings or assets, as we rent in UK. we are going to start frantically saving now, and selling off stuff we dont need or wont be taking with us, the plan is to move my husbands IT business from uk to spain and he will retain his current clients as he is able to work remote, i will close down my own UK business doing wedding dessert catering and will start it up again in spain and concentrate on all events/parties etc, we would rent a property to start off and this time try to actually make a life out there rather than a working holiday which we must admit is what we did last time.
> As far as language barrier goes i picked up spanish quickly as we moved to a traditional spanish village where we were the only english there and have remembered a lot of it, i can hold a conversation and get by, in the meantime we are looking to all get our spanish up to speed with things like rosetta stone, lessons and tuning into the language by watching stuff on tv in spanish.
> I know this all sounds like a pipe dream but we all really want to be there and will do it starting from nothing if we need to. you only live once and we would rather fail trying than never trying at all.
> ...


:welcome:

I think overall, most of us would agree that living costs here are a little lower than in the UK - but not a whole lot different, especially when you have children 

even in 'free' state education you can expect to spend around 1 to 2000€ per year per child on books & other equipment, so that's something you need to consider, since that's an expense you don't have in the UK 

you might get more property for your money, but electricity is more expensive, as is internet, & if you want UK TV that's another expense

things have changed since you last came - if you plan to be here, or are here, more than 3 months, then you have to register as resident - that means that you'll ahev to prove that you have sufficient income/funds to support the family

that means over something like 500€ a month per person - most extranjerías seem to require over 600€ - & also that you have healthcare provision

if you are running businesses here you can register as autónomo (self-employed) & that will cover the income & healthcare requirements

also as residents you wouldn't be able to drive a foreign plated car so would have to either sell it or change it to Spanish plates

have a read of other threads, & the *FAQs & useful info* thread at the top


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## Lynn R (Feb 21, 2014)

I believe the OP wouldn't be able to claim Child Benefit or Working Family Tax Credit if living in Spain? If so, they would need to make up that shortfall in their income, which might cancel out or even outweigh cheaper rental costs and some bills like IBI being cheaper.

Starting up a new catering business aimed at events\parties seems very risky in the current economic climate when there isn´t a lot of spare money around in most areas, unemployment being what it is, to spend on luxuries.


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## ndodd84 (Sep 14, 2014)

thanks guys, we wasnt aware of the income rule, wasnt there when we were there last time and we did go for residenthias aswell. lots has changed over there - hardly suprising. we are hoping to go over next month to see what the changes have been etc. 

we have already written tax credits and child benefit off if we make the move, we have the incoming to afford it and show proof we can survive but didnt realise that paying self employment was so high - does anyone know how it works if you stay self employed under UK and work in spain as my husbands clients are UK based still? 

we paid around 300 euro for school books last time but found it balanced out as we didnt have to buy uniform like in UK which usually costs us around the £200 mark per child. i would prefer my eldest to go to a spanish school rather than an international one so he mixes well etc, i know its going to be difficult for him but he did it last time and the school was great with the language barrier and he progressed quickly


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## Lynn R (Feb 21, 2014)

Presumably your husband´s business makes having a fast internet connection an absolute necessity? You will need to be very selective about where to base yourselves as fibre optic is still a real rarity outside the major cities and 10mbs is about the best you can get with a Movistar (formerly Telefonica) ADSL connection if you have a landline phone.

If you want to do things legally, and I´m sure you do, then you don´t have the option to "stay self emloyed in the UK" and live in Spain. If you are here for 183 days or more in a Spanish tax year, then you are automatically deemed tax resident in Spain. I believe that´s also the case if a husband or wife is employed outside Spain (working offshore, for example) but supporting their spouse and children who are living in Spain - because in those circumstances, Spain is considered to be their centre of economic interest.


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## ABERAFON (Aug 15, 2014)

Whilst it might be difficult in the UK, it will be much harder in Spain if you have to rely on earned income and have 3 children. You both have income in the UK, which however small, appears to be reliable and of course you get free heath care and schooling, access to some benefits particularly if things go wrong and much lower taxes. Overall you are better off in the UK and will be able to build a future which eventually could involve a move to Spain after you have built up assets and security in the UK which could be used to create a more secure life in Spain. Your children are getting a bit old to fit into the Spanish education system and certainly the eldest one will need to go an international school which is expensive. It will not be fair to your children to take them out to Spain at this time and it would be better until they are out of the compulsory education system. Setting up a business in Spain is very hard without the recession and running a business in Spain with UK customers can be more expensive. I am in and out of Spain and when I compare prices to the UK I can't really tell any difference overall so it will cost you the same to live but more to work so you will be much worse off. If I were you and I am not, I would forget it, work hard in the Uk for 12 years or so build your secure life there and then think about it again when you have some money behind you and no children to worry about -sorry to be negative but I have seen so many of my friends do similar to you when times were better and still fall flat on their faces and lose a lot particularly where the children were involved.


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